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FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 



F n O M 



DAWN TO SUNRISE: 



A REVIEW, HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL, 



OV THE 



RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF MANKIND 



" It may be demonstrated that all ancient traditions are true, and that all paganism 
is but a system of displaced verities." — Le Maestre. 



KY 






MRS. J. GREGORY SMITH. 




ROUSES POINT, N.Y.: 
LOYELL PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO. 

187G. 






Copyright. 

Mrs. J. Gregory Smith. 

076. 



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8To tl)* iFrUnbs 

FOR WHOSE BENEFIT THESE PAGES WERE ORIGINALLY WRITTEN, AND 

AT WHOSE REQUEST THEY ARE PUBLISHED, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS 



GENESIS. 

Page. 

Authorities, — The Bible — Dr. Kitto's Commentaries — Dr. 
Dawson's Archaia — Prof. WinchalFs Sketches — American 
Cyclopedia — Proctor's Astronomy — Lockyer's Astronomy 
and Smith's Astronomy. 

CHAPTER I.— Traditions of the Creation— The Hebrew 
account — The beginning, remote beyond our compre- 
hension. — Nebulae — Chaos — The formation of worlds — 
End of the first Aeon — Light — Primeval storm — Geologi- 
cal formations — No limit to a primeval day — Production of 
vegetation — Appearance of the sun and moon — The age 
of reptiles — The creation of animals and man — No dis- 
crepancy between science and the Mosaic account — Evo- 
^ lution — Inspiration of Moses — Immortality conferred on 
man — Reflections 31 



ANTEDILUVIAN MAN AND HIS ASSOCIATES. 

Authorities. — Ancient History of the East by Chevalier and 
LeNormant — Kitto's Commentaries — Mrs. Child's Relig- 
ious Progress — The Bible — Prof. C. C. Mead, Hebrew 
Professor, Andover — and various scientific works. 

PRIMITIVE MAN OF THE BIBLE. 

CHAPTER II. — The cradle of the human race, the western 
terminus of the Himalayas — The Garden of Eden — The 



IO CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Temptation and Fall— The innocence of the first pair,^ not 
virtue— Why was sin permitted ?— Religion of primitive 
man __His longevity, wonderful progress, civilization and 
ar t_Antediluvian literature—Traditions of the Fall and of 
the antediluvian^Patriarchs. 

PRIMITIVE MAN OF GEOLOGY. 

Unlike the primitive man of the Bible— His savage and miser- 
able condition-Possible origin— The cold period, theories 
concerning it— No conflict between science and the sacred 
writings— Another race people the earth— Incarnate an- 
gels unite in marriage with women— Their terrible, gigan- 
tic offspring— They usurp the government of the earth 
and fill it with unbearable wickedness— Jehovah deter- 
mines to destroy them— Absurdity of the supposition that 
such an extreme punishment would be sent for an ordi- 
nary marriage-Exegesis of Prof. C. C. Mead.— Conclu- 
sive argument— The Kingdom and Reign of Lucifer ! — 
State of the world under his sway— Coming catastrophe- 
Traditions — Doo?n 1 4 



THE DELUGE. 
Authorities.— Dr. Kitto's Commentaries— Hugh Miller's Testi- 
mony of the Rocks— Ancient History of the East— Amer- 
ican Encyclopedia— The Bible. 

RESUME OF CHAPTER II. 

CHAPTER III.— Meaning of the name Noah— Mistaken 
idea of the ark— Incorrect translation of words— Traditions 
of the Deluge found among all the Tribes except the 
black races— Was the Deluge universal ?— The Bible indi- 
cates that it was not— How was the Deluge effected? — 
The question scientifically answered— Hugh Miller's 
theory— The result of volcanic action— Impotency of man 
when the forces of nature are arrayed against him— Proba- 
ble appearance of the seat of empire at this portentous 



CONTENTS. ii 



Page. 
period — New light thrown upon these far-off times — No 

discrepancy between the Mosaic writings and the reve- 
lations of science — Inflexibility of natural laws — Moral 
law also unswerving 71 



THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES AND DISPERSION 

OF THE TRIBES. 

Authorities. — Ancient History of the East, by Chevalier and 
Le Normant — Guyot's Earth and Man — Max Mullens 
works — and Buckle's History of Civilization. 

CHAPTER IV. — Varieties in race and religion caused by the 
dispersion of the Tribes and confusion of Tongues — 
Legends of the events at Babel — Meaning of the word not 
confusion — Meaning of the name Peleg — Effect of climate 
upon man — North Temperate zone, the most favorable to 
perfect development — Effect of food, of commercial ad- 
vantage, of hereditary transmission and intermarriage — 
Cause of the emigration of the Tribe of Noah— Hamites 
— Turanian — Shemites — The great family of Japhet — The 
negroes remote remnants of an antediluvian race — Origin of 
language — Possible cause of the confusion at Babel — 
Scientific classification of the languages — Philology — 
Interesting instance of the preservation of a primitive idea 
in a word 93 



OPHIOLATRY.— THE WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT- 
DIABOLISM— IS THE STORY OF EDEN A MYTH ? 

Authorities. — Deane's Serpent worship — Sir John Lubbock's 
Pre-historic Times and his Origin of Civilization — Squier's 
Serpent Symbol in America — Upham's Rise of Buddhism 
— Prescott's History of Mexico and Peru — Mrs. Child's 
Religious Progress — S. Baring-Gould's Origin and Develop- 
ment of Religious Belief — The Bible. 



12 CONTENTS. 



Page. 
CHAPTER V. — Fourfold proof that the worship of the serpent 

is coeval with the era of Paradise — A plunge into the 

darkness of pre-historic night — Researches of learned 

men — Startling results — Pre-historic civilization 116 

1ST. EVIDENCE OF THE GREAT ANTIQUITY OF OPHIOLATRY IN 
THE PRACTICES OF THE STATIONARY TRIBES OF MEN ; 

2ND. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 

The sun has always a serpent emblem — Phallic worship — May- 
day and other vernal feasts — Ophite ceremonies — Worship 
of trees — The serpent an exceptional beast — Serpent 
monarchs — Universality of this worship — Seraphim and 
Cherubim, winged serpents and winged bulls — Impersona- 
tions of the powers of nature — Theory with regard to the 
bronze emblem Moses set up in the wilderness — Sacrifices 
to the Devil — The Caduceus of Mercury — Worship of living 
snakes — Serpent worship in America — Gnostics and Sy- 
rian Ophites — Shocking extent to which human sacrifice 
has been carried in this worship — Cannibalism — Obi 
worship in Dahomey and among the negroes of the South- 
ern United States — Cruel and revolting sights — Diabolism. 

3D. EVIDENCE OF P.HILOLOGY. 

The constant recurrence of the syllables Ob, Og and On in 
ancient histories — Ra and Ob — Conclusive evidence as to 
their meaning — Their frequent use in Hebrew Scriptures. 

4TH. EVIDENCE OF PRE-HISTORIC ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS. 

Gog and Magog — Their dominion once universal — Hierogly- 
phics — Subterranean rock excavations and other stone ruins 
in the East — Traditional names — Probable Turanian origin 
— Conical structures — Who built the Pyramids ? — Conical 
stones in rows — Abury — Stonehenge — Karnac — Single co- 
nical monoliths — They are Obelisks ! — Extensive earth- 
works all over the world — Dracontia serpent temples — 



CONTENTS. 1 3 



Page. 

Description of the most remarkable— Barrows, cairns- 
Turanian skulls— Sacred hierogram, the mark of the beast, 
probably the counterfeit of an antediluvian sacred emblem- 
Curious history— Infidel misapprehension— Summing up 
of evidence— Universal Turanian dominition and idolatry 

The Devil worship of civilization — Final triumph of 

Christianity over Diabolism. 

CHAPTER VI.— Sabaeism— Star Worship 168 

CHINA AND ITS RELIGIONS. 

References. — Cyclopedia Britannica — Cyclopedia Americana — 
Works of Max Muller— Works of C. C. Coffin— Confu- 
cius, by Rev. A. W. Loomis — Middle Kingdom, Wells Wil- 
liams—Ten Great Religions, J. F. Clarke. 

CHAPTER VII.— Permanence, a synonyme of China — Tsin — 
Its vast territory and immense population — Its great anti- 
quity — Peculiarities — Turanian origin— Early history — 
Cause of permanence — Theology and Cosmogony — Chi- 
nese philosophy— Lao-tse and Taoism — Comparison with 
Buddhism — Atheistic tendency — Confucius, his life, la- 
bors and writings — His system of ethics — Honors to his 
descendants — An aristocracy of learning — Ancient Sintoo 
worship — Funeral rites — Ancestral worship — Melancholy 
of Chinese character — Stagnation — Future of China 180 



PERSIAN MAZDAISM. 

Authorities. — Ancient History of the East, Chevalier and Le 
Normant — Cyclopedia Americana — Smith's Ancient His- 
tory, Max Miiller's Chips from a German Work-Shop, and 
Science of Religion — Ten Great Religions, J. F. Clarke — 
and others. 



14 CONTENTS. 



Page. 

CHAPTER VIII.— The Persian Empire contrasted with that 
of China — Their antipodal character — Early history of the 
Aryan tribes — Cause of emigration — State of society and 
religion before the great division — Mythical character of 
early legends — Story of Cavehand Zohak — Great religious 
wars — Corruptions of the ancient faith — Era and life of 
Zoroaster — Mazdaism and Dualism — Fire worship — Theo- 
ries of the ancient Zend writings — Similarity to the Hebrew 
scriptures — The extraordinary purity of the teachings of 
the Persian master— Extracts from his writings— In them we 
perceive the humane and cheerful spirit of the New Testa- 
ment — His mind illuminated if not inspired — His mistakes 
and failure — Brief review of Persian history after his death 
— Cause of the decline of Mazdaism — Its truth still pre- 
served in Christianity 2 °o 



BRAHMINISM. 

Authorities. — Max M tiller's works — Butler's Land of the Veda 
— Whitney's Oriental Studies — R. Spence Hardy's Works 
— Mrs. Child's Progress of Religious Ideas — J. F. Clarke's 
Ten Great Religions. 

CHAPTER IX. — Ancient Hindoostan, its beauty and isola- 
tion — Origin of the philosophy and religion of the Hindoo 
Aryans — The beauty and inconsistency of their sacred 
books — Probably the oldest in the world — Caste — The 
Code of Menu, cruel and unjust — Its rigor and severity 
towards women — Burial of a Hindoo mother — Mr. John- 
son's idea of Brahminism reviewed — Transmigration — 
Penance — Sacrifice — Modern Brahminism — Gross idolatry 
— Superstition and suicide — Impracticability of trans- 
cendental philosophy — Its great deterioration in India — 
Brahminism compared with Christianity 221 



CONTENTS. 15 



Page. 
BUDDHISM. 

Authorities. — Max M tiller's works — Upham's Rise of Budd- 
hism — Mrs. Leonowen's Siam — Spence Hardy's works — 
J. F. Clarke's Ten Great Religions — James Fergusson's 
Tree and Serpent worship. 

CHAPTER X. — Necessity for the thorough examination of 
Buddhism — It is older than Brahminism — Probably of 
Turanian origin — The name means Enlightenment — A 
recoil from Brahminism — The nature of the struggle — 
Many Buddhas — Life of Gotama — The last of these en- 
lightened men — Oriental Philosophy foreign to American 
modes of thought — Summary of Buddhist belief — It has 
its foundation in the Sankhya — Nirvana — Its subsequent 
adaptation to the necessities of the human soul — Atheism — 
Morality — Ten commandments — Apotheosis of Buddha 
— Nervana changed to heaven — A hell superadded 
— Wonderful success of Buddhism — Its aim at Catholicity a 
failure — Its sacred books — Effect of Atheism on literature 
— No literary stimulus in Buddhism — Degeneration of the 
original faith — Tedious ceremonial — Similarity to that of 
Rome — Buddha's tooth — Buddhist monks — Effect of Budd- 
hism on character — The truth it contains — Deficiencies — 
Striking contrast in the character of two* Eminent Budd- 
hists — Death of the High Priest of Siam 247 



THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 

Authorities. — Rawlinson's Herodotus — D ale th— Ancient His- 
tory of the East— J. F. Clarke's Ten Great Religions- 
Mrs. Child's Progress of Religious Ideas, and Baldwin's 
Pre-historic Nations, &c. &c. &c. 

CHAPTER XL— A vision of Old Egypt— Its extreme antiquity 
— Strange traditions — Perfect civilization seven thousand 
years ago — Probable pre-historic Turanian occupation — 



1 6 CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Geology of the Nile valley — Resume of the History of 
Egypt after Menes till the Roman conquest — The religion 
of ancient Egypt — Its excessive piety and idolatry — Sub- 
stratum of truth — The gods of Egypt — Apotheosis of men 
and animals — The priests, their learning and power — The 
Mysteries Magic — Character of the people — Literature — 
Funeral Ritual — The soul after death — Severe morality — 
Embalming — Archaeological wonders of Egypt — Egyptol- 
ogists — The failure and decay of the religion — Its future 
state compared with that of other religions — Superiority 
of Christian belief — Reflections 270 



MOSES AND THE RELIGION HE TAUGHT. 

Authorities. — Milman's History of the Jewish Nation — Stan- 
ley's History of the Jewish Church — Ancient History of 
the East — Kurtz's Old Covenant — Mrs. Child's Religious 
Progress, and The Bible. 

CHAPTER XII. — Abraham, his religion — Traditions — Israel 
in Egypt — Moses — He is known to Greek, Roman and 
Egyptian History — His character and adventurous life — 
His mission — The Exodus — How affected — Life in the 
Wilderness — Arab Legends — Mosaic law and government 
compared with its contemporaries — Its originality — Ritual- 
ism — Grandeur of Moses' character — His death — Interest- 
ing Arab and Jewish traditions — Reflections 294 



THE SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION. 

Authorities. — Mallet's Northern Antiquities — Deane's History 
of Civilization — J. F. Clark's Ten Great Religions — Taine's 
History of English Literature — Lecky's Moral Develop- 
ment of Europe— Draper's Intellectual Development of 
Europe— X. B. Saintine's Myths of the Rhine. 

CHAPTERXIII.— Pre-historic Europe — Its primitive inhabit- 
ants—Turanian occupation— Aur-ob, the Land of the 



CONTENTS. 17 

Page. 
Solar serpent — The Celts — The Scandinavian — Climate 
and characteristics — Piracy and War — Chastity and loyalty 
— The Sea Rovers — Their discoveries — Religion — Its 
Aryan origin — Ancient literature — Its sublime character — 
The Edda — Theology and cosmogony — Gods of the 
Teutons — Ygdrassils oak — Spirits of Earth — Air and 
Water — Immortality — The priests a branch of the Persian 
Magi — Priestesses — Blood sacrifices — Rapid conversion 
of the Teutons to Christianity — Struggle between old cus- 
toms and the new faith — Poetic character — Germs of 
Genius — The ennobling effect of Christianity upon the 
Germanic tribes — Their progressive and conservative in- 
fluence upon the world — Martin Luther their representa- 
tive man — God save Germania ! 313 



THE RELIGION OF GREECE AND ROME. 

Authorities. — Bullfinch's Age of Fable — Lempriere's Classical 
Dictionary — Mrs. Child's Religious Progress— J. F. Clarke's 
Ten Great Religions — Smith's Ancient History — Dr. Lord's 
Old Roman World — Dr. Draper's Works — Johnson's 
Geography, &c. &c 

CHAPTER XIV. — Pre-historic occupation of Greece and 
Italy — The Etrusci — Permanent occupation by Aryan 
tribes — Volcanic origin of the country — Its wonderful 
beauty and fertility — Magnificence and Intelligence of the 
people — Myths — Religion — Cosmography, Gods, Worship, 
Festivals, Oracles — The Mysteries — Brutality of Ancient 
Romans — Fate — The Furies, Nemesis — The Philosophers 
reviewed — Marcus Aurelius the Stoic — Persecution of the 
Christians— Decay of Greek and Roman Religion 337 



MAHOMET AND HIS RELIGION. 

Authorities. — Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe — 
Irving's Life of Mahomet — Mrs. Child's Religious Ideas 

2 



1 8 CONTENTS. 



— J. F. Clarke's Ten Great Religions — Lecky's Moral 
development, and Palgrave's Arabia. 
CHAPTER XV.— The peninsula of Arabia— A rich histo- 
rical field — Origin of the Arab tribes— Their mixed reli- 
gious ideas — Rise of Mahomet — His extraordinary life — 
His early doctrines — The Koran — Its inconsistencies — The 
Flight of Mahomet — Portents — Change of character after 
the death of Kadijah — Revelations to meet emergencies — 
Temporizing policy — The sword is the best persuader- 
Fatalism — Brigandage — Extraordinary success — Enthu- 
siasm of Arab character — Eloquence — Amazons — Death 
of Mahomet — Reign of the Caliphs — Mahometan con- 
quest and consolidation, checked by Charles Martel — The 
Arabs become learned and luxurious — The patrons of art 
and science — Excessive wealth — Enervation — Summing up 
of the character of Mahomet — His mission in the world — 
Providential men — Defects of his system — Decay 357 



CHRISTIANITY. 
CHAPTER XVI. — Fallacies of religious teaching — What is 
Truth ? — Brevity of the life and labor of Christ — The 
spirituality of his doctrines — Love, the underlying princi- 
ple — Liberty — Democracy — Immortality — Resurrection of 
the body — Simplicity of the ceremonial — Practical effect 
of Christianity upon the character — Constitutional influ- 
ences — Christians of the third Century — -Cause of persecu- 
tion in the church — Tests of the genuineness of Christianity 
— Is it the heaven-sent religion ? — Miracles no proof of its 
authenticity — The intuitions of our nature and its influence 
upon the world — its best vouchers — J. S. Mill's estimate 
— Miracles of Christ not necessarily supernatural — Proofs 
of the authenticity of the Incarnation — Universal belief in 
the coming of a Son of God — Review of the religions of 
the world — Their comparison with Christianity — " It is a 
reintegration of displaced verities " — Its superiority — 
Coming of Christ foretold by the sages of many nations — 
Disappointment in his advent — Are we to have another 
revelation ? — Conclusion 379 



ERRATA. 



Page 119, 18th line, 



3 22 , 
353, 
373, 
394, 
394, 



8th 
9th 

27th 
8th 

15th 



for 



Atalanta 

egiron 

one 

rites 

SirT.Melear 

motive 



read 



Atlantis. 

region. 

our. 

rights. 

Sii T. McLear. 

motion. 



INTRODUCTION. 



A FEAR agitates the mind of the Christian philoso- 
pher, at the present time, that another great 
religious eclipse is impending, such as have during 
historic times chilled the soul of mankind for ages and 
destroyed its liberty and spiritual vitality. 

Europe lay under a penumbra of gloom and horror 
from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries, — the Dark Ages. 
Then religion, divorced from science, was wedded to 
superstition and priestcraft in the bands of an infernal 
wedlock, and the fearful progeny of such an unholy union 
was slavery, intellectual stupefaction, all crime known 
to human law, unnameable vice, and physical disease. At 
that melancholy period it was religiously taught that a 
man could purchase from another man, with money, ex- 
emption from penalty in this world and the world to come, 
even though committing the foulest murder and treason; 
but if he denied that the bread and wine in the hands of 
the priest was not miraculously transformed into the act- 
ual body of the crucified Saviour, if he refused to assert 
that the autocrat who sat in St. Peter's chair, steeped in 
venality, vice and crime, was the vicegerent of the 
Prince of Peace and Purity, if he dared to believe that the 
earth turned upon its axis, he was subjected to all the 
indignity and bodily torture the ingenuity of man, aided 
by the Devil, could devise. Witness the horrors of the 



20 INTRODUCTION. 



Inquisition in Spain and Holland, the reign of religious 
terror in France and England. 

The extremists of the Church of Rome are attempting 
again to drag the world backward into the gloomy realms 
of paganism and priestcraft. 

But another and an opposite peril also endangers the 
spiritual life of the world — science now sues for a 
divorce from religion ; if this result were to be accom- 
plished the soul of man, driven into the deadly ether 
spaces of Atheism, would be chilled and starved into 
moral atrophy and death. The modern school of Atheists 
offer to the inquiring soul only the antiquated principles 
of Buddha and Laotse. 

Prof. Fiske, in one of the New York daily papers, 
advances this mystifying idea of Deity : " There exists 
a power in time and space, of which all phenomena are 
manifestations, but which one can only know through 
these manifestations,'' that is, there has never been, and 
cannot be, a revelation of God. He adds : " What is 
this wondrous Dynamis ? Shall we call it gravitation, or 
light, or heat, or electricity, or life, or thought, or sum- 
ming up all into one comprehensive epithet, call it Force ?" 
Straus, Renan, Huxley, Spencer, Darwin, Tyndall, and 
many other scientific leaders, following the guides of 
past ages, puzzle themselves over Nature and Organic 
Law, The Universum, the Absolute, Force, Dynamis ! 
" God shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision, 
for they have said in their hearts and have proclaimed to 
the world that there is no God ! only blind law, without 
a law maker. Fortunately, average common sense men 
have clearer moral perception and greater intellectual 
integrity. Giving conscience, as well as reason, a candid 



INTRO D UCTION. 2 1 

hearing, they know that beyond natural causes, there 
must be One who creates law and nature, a providential 
personal Ruler, to whom they are responsible, and they 
call this Being, God. Yet the attack of modern skepti- 
cism is so subtle, the arguments so specious, that the 
unthinking and unguarded are deceived, and weak faith is 
shaken. " At this moment a general doubt is coming up 
like a thunder-cloud against the wind. Those who cling 
most tenaciously to the faith in which they were educa- 
ted confess themselves perplexed. They know what they 
believe, but why they believe it, or why they should re- 
quire others to believe it, they cannot tell and cannot 
agree. The truth of gospel history is more widely doubt- 
ed than at any time since the conversion of Constantine, 
and every Christian who desires to remain one, and who 
knows anything of what is passing in the world, is look- 
ing to be told on what evidence the New Testament claims 
to be received. ,, * " We cannot foresee the exact influence 
of scientific discovery upon the future, but it is clear that 
once more men will be brought face to face with the deepest 
questions of religious belief/' 2 

Beside these scientific infidels, there is another class 
of scholars who exalt the sacred writings of the Hindoos 
and Persians, now just becoming familiar, above those of 
the Jews and Christians. An Atheist enquired of me, 
a few years ago, if I was acquainted with these ancient 
books ; confessing my ignorance, he startled me by saying, 
" I can show you in the Vedas and the Avesta, that which 
is far better and purer than anything to be found in your 
musty old Bible. ,, 

Unable to refute the assertion I could only answer, 

1 Mr. Froude. 2 Rev. Mr. Fowle. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 



" 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' Are the countries 
where their influence prevails better governed, more 
civilized, and happier, than ours where the Bible controls ? 
" Can those defiled Oriental temples or their tyrannical, 
immoral priests, be compared with our Christian churches 
and God-fearing clergymen ? " 

He was silent, but might he not have retorted, " Can 
I not show you in mediaeval Europe, Christians, monks 
as vile, institutions as cruel, and fetichism as grovelling 
as anything Brahmanism has produced ? Is any worship 
grosser than that of dead mens bones, and rotten wood 
said to be relics of the true cross ? and did any religion 
ever invent instruments of torture more infernal and ply 
them in such fiendish fashion, as did the Inquisition of 
Spain under his most Christian majesty Philip the Second, 
and his successors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ? 
Look at the atrocities practised by one Christian sect to- 
wards another in France, when Huguenots and Wal- 
denses perished by thousands, and in England, during 
the reign of Bloody Mary and James the Second, when 
the rack, the gibbet, the boot, and the fires of Smithfield, 
mutilated and tortured the bodies of men, made in the 
image of God ? 

What answer could be given to these questions ? I felt 
that Christianity could be defended, but how I knew not ! 
With foes in its own citadel who would use its mantle of 
charity and its banner of liberty for the purpose of idolatry 
and despotism, assailed from without by scientific atheists 
who would prove its weakness and fallacy by their superior 
knowledge of natural law, and by sophists who would offer 
other sacred writings as a substitute for the New Testa- 
ment, could Christianity stand ? 



INTRODUCTION. 23 



Two paramount problems are offered to the perplexed 
inquirer. First, What is Truth ? Second, Is the teaching 
of Jesus Christ its embodiment, or are we to have another 
revelation? Nothing is demonstrable but mathematical 
truth ; there is no other positive science ; theories with re- 
gard to natural law even are constantly changing ; we can- 
not prove any religious truth by demonstration, better than 
we can prove the existence of God in that way, and " who 
by searching can find out God ! " Yet if history proves 
anything, it is that man is a religious being, that " the 
intuition of God is a part of the original dowry of human 
nature." We know that we have come into the world 
like countless generations which have preceded us ; birth 
or circumstances over which we have no control have de- 
termined our position in life ; we are greatly absorbed in 
pursuits which, perhaps, are not of our own choice, and we 
are conscious that we are hurrying through this phase of 
existence, that in a limited time of which we are in ignor- 
ance, we shall disappear forever and our places be filled 
by the ever renewed, ever vanishing phantoms of human 
existence ! 

Who placed us here ? Who controls our being ? and 
whither do we go ? are the momentous questions which 
agitate the soul in the solemn hours of thought. Then 
comes the feeling that there is a Supreme Power and the 
desire to be in accord with this Being, and religion 
dawns in the soul. 

A tendency to atheism shows a defective mental con- 
stitution, in individual cases. Without the balance which 
a sense of responsibility to a Supreme Ruler gives to 
human character, the intellectual machinery (if I may be 
allowed the expression) run§ irregularly and gets into 



24 INTRODUCTION. 



fatal disorder. In such organizations as Tyndall's, Hux- 
ley's, and Spencer's, there is little danger of immorality, 
for the sensorium is impoverished by an undue develop- 
ment of the reflective organs, passion and appetite are 
enfeebled, and the one-sided, ill-balanced nature exhibits 
a frozen intellectuality only less to be deplored than 
grosser faults. But among the middle ranks immorality 
and secret vice is the unhappy result, while lower and 
more brutal natures, freed from responsibility to a Higher 
Power who can punish sin, develope an amazing proclivity 
to monstrous crimes and nameless abominations. Where 
this form of disbelief becomes universal and takes pos- 
session of a nation, " the wave of ungodliness is a sure 
precursor of convulsion." 1 Such was the condition of 
Rome previous to its downfall, and France in the latter 
part of the eighteenth century. At that time the Abbe 
Gregoire said to the National Assembly : " Write the name 
of God at the head of the declarations, or you leave them 
without foundation ; you declare not the rights of man, 
but the right of the strongest ; you inaugurate a reign of 
violence." The assembly declined ; they listened to the 
voice of atheistic monsters forced from the icy torpor of 
their original natures into active life by the fierce fires 
of fanaticism. Monsieur Proudhon said : " The Revolution 
looked Him in the face and said to itself, ■ I will conquer 
Him ; it is war we proclaim against God. Be it so, let 
us make war upon Him ! Let us drive the eternal Father 
back into His remote heaven, His presence among us hangs 
upon a thread, the Revolution does not mince matters 
with the Deity ! ' " The Reign of Terror followed, anarchy, 
destruction, social chaos, was the inevitable consequence, 

1 Froude. 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

and a reformation of society was impossible till there was 
a revival of religious faith. 

Religion has been universal in all ages and nations, 
though the intuition of God has taken strange and diverse 
types. Imperfect man, in the search for truth, has ever 
mixed it with a great amount of fatal error ! the n atural 
religions are dark, burdensome, cruel, enslaving, not 
one of them represent God with the attribute of love ; 
our humanity and moral sense are outraged and shocked 
by the indecency, ferocity and degradation with which 
they are characterized, so that we are ready to exclaim, 
" O religion, how many crimes have been committed in 
thy name ! " We long to see God, but we would see 
Him in the light, not through the defiling smoke of lurid 
sacrifices ; we would believe in a Being pure and good, 
unswayed by passion, of infinite and eternal repose. 
We feel the dignity of manhood and the strength of an 
immortal nature ; we revolt at the thought of being 
slaves to a cruel despot or a blind Fate ; we * demand a 
religion of liberty as well as love, a God who can pardon 
as well as punish, and we sigh, " Oh, that we could find 
Him ! n Many of the old religions are obsolete, and others 
give warning of decrepitude and dissolution. But frcm 
the very nature of things Truth is eternal. What then 
gives evidence of inherent vitality ? What of religious truth 
has survived the shock of ages ? We have been taught to 
believe that in the Christian religion God's eternal truth is 
found, but few can defend the assumption. Many in their 
own hearts are doubtful, and while the materialist calls our 
religion superstition and our faith credulity, we wonder if 
it is so. 

The solution of the great problem cannot be found 



26 INTRODUCTION. 



in the old methods of proving religious truth. The in- 
spiration of the Apostles, their supernatural power, or 
even the miracles of Christ, prove nothing at this time, 
for they must be received on the testimony of men, and 
that is always liable to error. The fact that our fathers 
so believed must pass for nothing ; we cannot know reli- 
gious truth, we must feel it ; conscience, through reason, 
must be convicted of its inherent essential perfection 
and adaptation to the needs of humanity. 

If by comparing Christianity with all the other 
religions of the world we are able to detect, from 
internal evidence, the indications of its superhuman 
origin ; if we perceive that while the others have 
been suited to a particular state of society, race, climate, 
or era, Christianity, from its elastic and progressive 
character, is adapted to every grade of intellectual 
development, every phase of human nature, all con- 
ditions and all ages ; if the religious ideas which have 
survived the wrecks of time are here embodied, then it 
is self-evident, that it must have been given by the All- 
Knowing One, who alone could have provided for every 
case and every emergency. 

For this purpose we should in a candid spirit take up 
the history of the principal religions of the world, begin- 
ing with the oldest of them all, the religion of our pri- 
mogenitors, Adam and Eve — a review of which necessi- 
tates an examination of the Mosaic writings contained in 
the first chapters of the Bible, as also other traditions 
of the great events therein described ; we should examine 
the supposed discrepancy between the Mosaic account 
of the creation and the revelations of modern science, 
discuss the nature and extent of the great Deluge and 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

the important events which followed the Confusion of 
Tongues and Dispersion of the Tribes, which resulted in 
diversities of language, race and religion. 

Of these subsequent developments we should investi- 
gate the Chinese, ancient Persian, the religion and phi- 
losophy of India, Brahmanism and Buddhism, the religions 
of Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Rome, the Hebrew, Scan- 
dinavian and Mohammedan faiths, comparing them lastly 
with the religion which Christ brought into the world. 
In the pursuit of this great subject we should resort to 
the rich storehouses of tradition, history and natural sci- 
ence, and penetrate still further into the dim recesses of 
the pre-historic past; with the archaeologist enter the 
tombs and pyramids of Egypt, walk through the amazing 
subterranean rock temples of India, visit the giant cities 
of Bashan, muse upon the Assyrian mounds and puzzle 
over their inscribed brick — linger by the strange rock 
inscriptions found throughout the Orient, ponder over 
the serpent mounds and other ruins of our own country, 
and gaze with awe at the ever recurring mystery of the 
obelisk ! For us, the philologist should unlock the arca- 
num of language, his magic touch will unveil many a 
bright gem of thought concealed through the ages in the 
plain cover of a familiar word. Ethnology must also 
lend its aid, by which we shall become acquainted with 
the almost incredible changes and varieties which have 
been produced from one original stock, by climate, food, 
configuration of continents, pursuits of life, intermarriage 
and education. And this branch of our subject will lead 
us to look very charitably upon the religious practices of 
those whose constitutions and mental methods are so di- 
verse from our own — we shall lose that self-conceit which 



28 INTRODUCTION, 



has led us unduly to exalt our own excellence, and we 
shall glorify one common Father and God, who has gath- 
ered to their rest and reward millions of souls whom we, 
in our bigotry, have sometimes supposed were lost : "I 
beheld, and lo a great multitude, that no man could num- 
ber, of all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues, 
stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed 
with white robes and with palms in their hands/' We 
should thus discover the transcendent superiority of the 
Christian religion; but learning how rapidly other religions 
have deteriorated and become corrupt, when they lost the 
simplicity of the founders, we shall be warned of our own 
danger in this respect, perceiving with dismay, that 
Christians do not embody Christianity, and that we have 
almost lost the original idea. 

The following pages are the result of years of study 
in attempt to solve the great religious problem in 
this comprehensive manner ; and although, as I am 
painfully conscious, it is very imperfectly done, if it 
serves to give any one arguments wherewith to defend 
his religious faith, if it leaves any with less bigotry and 
self-conceit, with more love for all mankind, with great- 
er confidence in the final triumph of Christianity, and an 
increased desire for its practical possession, then shall I 
thank God, who sometimes " uses the weak things of this 
world to confound the mighty." The paths of this inves- 
tigation have been ways of great pleasantness, and in the 
journey I have found exceeding peace, for although in 
travelling far back through the dim vistas of the shadowy 
past I have sometimes walked through the very valley and 
shadow of moral death, where frightful sounds and awful 
shapes assault the sense, and sometimes have groped in the 



INTRODUCTION. 29 



twilight gleam of the ages, so far from the light of Truth 
that I could almost exclaim, like those condemned in the 
valleys of Dante's Inferno, " All hope abandon ye who 
enter here!" yet through all the devious way, I could 
ever discern a divine voice and a beckoning hand, leading 
onward and upward, till at last appeared upon Mount 
Calvary's summit the resplendent Sun of Righteousness, 
before whose beams the mists of error and darkness, sin 
and death shall forever flee away ! 



CHAPTER I. 

GENESIS. 
"Chaos and Old Night." 

THE Beginning, when was it ? The Dawn of Crea- 
tion, whence came it ? What caused the first dim- 
mer of light that thrilled the heart of universal darkness ? 
To find the Beginning, we must go backward through 
the rolling ages, backward along the slowly rounding 
cycles, through the stillness of the awful aeons, till the 
soul, fainting upon the trackless limits of Time, incapable 
of further retrograde, sinks mute and motionless upon 
the verge of God's Eternity ! At some point in this in- 
conceivable period of duration was The Beginning, when 
a Pre-existent Power created the original atoms. 

Tradition has been quaintly called "the heart of 
history/' " the faint reverberations of its distant bell," its 
indications should never be neglected ; for " although the 
echoes are many, the voice is one," and that, we may be 
sure, is the voice of Truth. We will therefore begin the 
answer to our inquiries with traditions of the Creation 
which are not confined to the Hebrew Scriptures, but 
are common to all the tribes of men in the most discon- 
nected and distant parts of the earth. Many of these are 
mixed with monstrous and incredible myths, but they 
preserve one general idea. 



3 2 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

In the Rig Vida, the oldest of the Hindoo sacred books, 
the following remarkable passage occurs : " Nothing, yon 
bright sky was not, nor heaven's broad woof outstretched 
above ! What covered all, what sheltered, what con- 
cealed ? Was it the water s fathomless abyss ? Darkness 
was there, and all was veiled in gloom profound, an ocean 
without light. The germ that still lay covered in the 
husk burst forth, one nature, from the fervent *heat." 

Phoenician cosmogony represents the brooding spirit 
on the deep, and the word baan is almost identical with 
the Hebrew bohn, both meaning void or empty. 

The Greek fable of the war of giants who, when cut to 
pieces, resumed life in new forms, was no doubt intended to 
convey the idea of the conflict of elements and their re- 
forming by gradations. Prometheus, one of these giants, 
formed the first human pair from clay, and stole fire from 
heaven to animate them. 

The Scandinavian legend is, " In the beginning there 
was neither sky, nor sun, nor gelid wave, only a dark 
frozen mist. Then the cow, Adhumbla, licking the hoar 
frost, brings to light a man from whom the Giant Yemir 
was born, from his skull the vault of heaven was formed, 
from his brain the heavy clouds, from his bones the rocks, 
and from his flesh the earth." 

The Chinese idea is not unlike the Scandinavian. It 
is, that a giant, after laboring for ages among masses of 
granite floating in a chaotic condition, chisels out a world, 
and when he dies his work is finished by the transforma- 
tion of his dead body into the sky, and sea, and earth. 

The cosmogony of the Aztecs is very remarkable, 
though almost puerile in its simplicity, as contained in 
their National Book, the Popol Vuh. " There was not 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 33 

yet a single man, nor an animal, bird, fish, or crab, or 
wood, or stone, or ravine, or herb, or forest. There was 
only the silent sea and the sky. Naught attached itself 
to another naught that balanced itself, no sound in the 
sky, in the peaceful sea, the sea silent and solitary in its 
limits. Those who fecundate, those who give being, are 
upon the waters like a growing light. While they con- 
sulted, the day broke, and at the moment of dawn man 
appeared. Thus they consulted while the earth grew. 
Earth, said they, and the earth existed. Like a fog, like 
a cloud vas its formation, as huge fishes rise in the water, 
so rose the mountains. At that time spake he who 
gives life, the Maker, the Moulder, Tepen Gucumatz. 
The day draws near, the work is done, the servant is 
ennobled. He is the son of light, the child of whiteness, 
the race of man is on the earth. Thought was in them. 
They perceived the world and the sky. Then asked the 
Builder and the Moulder, What think ye of your being ? 
See ye not ! your language, your limbs, are they not 
good ? Then they looked and saw all that was beneath 
the heavens, and they gave thanks, saying, Truly, twice 
three times thanks, we have being, we speak, we under- 
stand, we think, we feel. Thanks to Thee, O Maker and 
Moulder, that we have been created, that we have being, 
Oh, our Grand-Mother ! Oh, our Grand-Father ! " 

The Peruvians called the first pair Alpha Casmasca, 
animated earth. 

Some tribes of North American Indians believed that 
the Great Spirit made two figures of clay, to which he 
gave life by breathing upon them. 

The Otaheitans say that Toeroa, their god, made men 
of red earth. The Dyacks of Borneo have the same idea. 

3 



34 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

These traditions have been selected as from their 
origin, and the great distance which separates the 
tribes who retain them, they could scarcely have been 
borrowed from . the writings of Moses, neither could 
Moses have compiled from them. There must have been 
a common origin for this similar and wide-spread belief. 

Setting aside any claim to Divine inspiration, the 
Mosaic account is more probable and circumstantial, freer 
from puerilities and inconsistencies than any other extant. 
The antiquarian, the scientist, the philosopher, and above 
all, the theologian, will regard this antique gem as the 
most precious fragment of literature in existence. 

We will now endeavor to ascertain if the contempt 
and discredit often thrown upon it is justified by a fair, 
critical examination of the text, " In the beginning, God 
created the heaven and the earth : " that is, at some 
point in that incomprehensible orbit, " whose centre is 
everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere/' the 
Eternal created the material of the universe. The great 
centre of our solar system, a speck in the vast unfathom- 
able depths of space, balances and controls its hundred 
satellites, and with them whirls and circles through an 
orbit which takes twenty-four thousand of our years to 
complete ; a solar year, an hour perhaps in the chronology 
of still greater spheres. A student in geology once 
asked a learned professor, "What was the probable 
duration of the Archaic Period ? " The answer was, 
" Geology knows no age. The Silurian period, much 
shorter than the Archaic, as nearly as we can calculate, 
was thirty-eight million of years /" The ancient Hin- 
doos had a better conception of time than we, for they 
calculated cycles, which were expressed by a unit and 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 35 

sixty ciphers ; our finite minds talter in striving to 
reach such a limit. The Infinite alone can comprehend 
the aeonic revolutions which have passed since the 
Beginning, when, by a direct act or the operation of a 
law of his own making, " God created the heavens and 
the earth." 

For a period after the great solar year began " the 
earth was without form and void." The period here 
described has in former times been little understood. 
Confusion and darkness enveloped it, which it seemed 
could never be penetrated ; but the almost inspired genius 
of Sir John Herschell, and afterwards that of La Place, 
have made clear the meaning. They tell us that the 
form in which matter first existed was that of igneous 
vapor or gas of inconceivable attenuity. It was without 
form or outline, like a wisp of fog, and it was void as 
mist is, without substance. 

If we peer through the cold vacancies of the sky, 
beyond the firmament of stars in which we are placed, 
we can faintly discern a few filmy or cloudy spots, which, 
unlike the flitting vapors of our atmosphere, are unchang- 
ing. Powerful telescopes reveal five thousand of these 
spots scattered throughout space. They are called 
Nebula, clouds. Some of them are proved by the 
spectroscopes to be firmaments of stars, like that in which 
our own solar system is situated, of which the Milky Way 
is the vast outer rim ; but others are shown to be gas in 
a state of incandescence, glowing so intensely that the 
light, after ages, has reached our earth. These gas- 
eous nebulae are supposed to be the crude materials of 
solar systems, incipient worlds in the same process of 
formation as that by which our own has attained 



36 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

its present form. The attenuated mass was moved 
upon by some power or principle, perhaps electricity, 
the particles attract and repel, being suspended in 
free space ; rotation is the consequence. Radiation 
of heat takes place and consequently condensation, 
the particles nearest each other are aggregated or 
gathered together, densest on the outer edge ; a ring is 
formed as by the water thrown from a rapidly revolving 
grindstone ; this ring of matter, still striving to keep up 
the rotation around the central mass, oscillates, and at 
last breaks, rolling on into a sphere, which continues to 
revolve about the original centre, and thus the first 
planet is formed ; in its own limited sphere the same pro- 
cess goes on and a moon is produced, perhaps many are 
made before the parent planet is too cold and solid to 
throw off another ring. A great burning mass is 
at last left in the centre, a sun, and the solar system 
is now complete. 

This theory is corroborated by the form and appear- 
ance of the nebulous spots before mentioned ; some of 
them being almost without outline and apparently with- 
out motion, others so distorted and confused as to sug- 
gest the idea of an electrical shock, others are seen with 
regular rays as if preparing for rotation, some in spiral 
form, as if rotation was just established, still others are 
circular, one has a dense spot on the edge of the mass as 
if the first ring had broken and rolled into a sphere, and 
in another a condensation in the centre seems to indicate 
that the sun is forming. The planets Jupiter and Saturn 
are supposed by some astronomers to be still in the con- 
dition of our earth at that period when " the spirit of 
God moved upon the face of the waters." The rings of 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE, 37 

Saturn, still in a fluid state, will continue to revolve 
around it, till some outward conjoined attraction or 
internal convulsion unsettles them and they are rolled 
into additional moons. 

Our Earth having been separated from the parent 
mass, and having thrown off her satellite, rolled on for 
ages, perhaps during Hindoo cycles, obedient to nature's 
immutable laws, slowly cooling and condensing, the fiery 
gas became a glowing substance, and smoke and flame 
were born. Here was the reign of " chaos and old night." 
As the condensation increased, a filmy crust was formed, 
the attraction of the heavenly bodies and the motion of 
the seething fluid beneath break and pile this crust un- 
equally, and the ribs of earth, the germs of mountains 
and continents appear. "A scene of terrific sublimity 
now approaches. As the dusky atmosphere began to 
thicken, wisps of vapor crept along, the heavens grow- 
ing thick and dark till an impending pall enveloped earth 
and sky, blotting out the light of the sun and moon for a 
geological age. Rain drops began to descend, but were 
scorched to evaporation. At length they reach the fervid 
crust, but only to be exploded and driven back to the 
over-burdened cloud which had an ocean to transfer to 
the earth. In the midst of this cosmical contest between 
fire and water, the voice of heaven's artillery was heard. 
Lightning darted through the Cimmerian gloom and 
world convulsing thunders echoed through the universe. 
A thousand years of storm and darkness have passed, 
the primeval tempest draws to a close, the clouds are at 
last exhausted, and the morning of another geological 
epoch dawns/' l 

1 Prof. Winchell. 



38 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

" The spirit of God had moved upon the waters ; " the 
decree went forth, "let light be, and light was." "The 
Hebrew word, Or, translated light, expresses luminosity, 
and signifies besides the light of the sun, heat and elec- 
tricity." l The first aeon was completed. The evening 
and the morning ^yas the first day, or as the original may 
be rendered, " The darkening and breaking forth of light 
were the first day." 

And God said, " Let there be a firmament in the midst 
of the waters, and let it divide the waters which are under 
the firmament from the waters which are above the firm- 
ament." " And God called the firmament Heaven ; and 
the evening and morning were the second day." " Rakiak, 
Hebrew, translated firmament, literally means expanse!' 2 
Geology indicates that at this period a portion of the 
waters, gradually liberated from the clouds, now rested 
upon the hot crust of the earth, which cooled and crum- 
bled under the unceasing surges and gnawed away the 
rocky ribs of earth in preparation of the soil which was at 
a future era to make it so fair. Another portion hung 
suspended in the space above the waters : the atmosphere, 
with its argosies of floating vapor. By the heaving and 
surging of the melted mass within, by earthquakes and 
cataclysms of a violence inconceivable, mountains and 
continents were thrown up, and deep basins received the 
waters, " And God called the dry land, earth, and the 
gathering together of the waters called He seas." 

This was the period of the formation of the geological 
strata, in the first of which, the coarser materials of the 
detritus settling lowest, produced the granite, limestone, 

1 Dawson. 2 Ibid. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 39 

shale, sandstone, slate, and some of the coal measures of 
the earth; in the secondary formation, other coal beds, 
the green sand, white chalk, clay, etc., were deposited, and 
in the tertiary period the alluvium settled. These de- 
posits, geologists argue, must each of them have been 
thousands of years in forming ; and they sneer at the 
Mosaic account which would represent them as apparent- 
ly coeval and limit their period to a day. They assert 
that the strata are so superposed that successive ages 
must have been requisite for their production. This may 
be true, or it may not be, one fact is worth a thousand 
theories. That learned men may be greatly mistaken, is 
proved by recent deep-sea dredgings, which show all the 
three formations in progress at the same time. At 
that era of violent convulsion, when the heavy materials 
were almost held in solution in the intensely heated water, 
precipitation may have been much more rapid than it ever 
was afterwards, and the different deposits then, as now, in 
ocean's bed, may have taken place simultaneously. But 
this is not probable. The word day has not in this 
account of the creation a limit of twenty-four hours. It 
means an indefinite period, an era, as we often use it, say- 
ing, " the day of our destiny," " the day of fate," " at that 
day." " If the word yom y translated day, means a civil day 
of twenty-four hours, how are we to understand the word 
in Genesis ii. 4, where it reads, " In the day when the 
Lord made the earth and the heavens." Is the day here 
mentioned intended to include the other six ? The same 
word is used indefinitely in many other passages, " day of 
calamity," "day of wrath," " day of God's power," "the 
day of captivity." In the Psalms there is a remarkable 
passage which conveys the idea of a day of God, as very 



40 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

different from a terrestrial day. " For a thousand years 
in thy sight are as yesterday when it is past ;" and in 
Peter, " One day with the Lord, is as a thousand years, 
and a thousand years as one day." x So also of the ex- 
pression, morning and evening, we say " the morning of 
youth " and " the evening of our life," meaning no limit- 
ed or definite period of time. Perhaps the " day " of Gen- 
esis may mean one revolution of cosmic material ; that, 
while the mass was of great expanse and attenuity, 
would require ages for its completion as it condensed and 
the motion became more rapid, the time would decrease 
in compound ratio, till at the creation of man it might be 
but twenty-four hours. Astronomers assure us that from 
the time of Adam the length of the day has been steadily 
though imperceptibly decreasing. 

Before this aeon was marked as the third day upon 
the horologue of God's eternity, the order went forth, 
" Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed 
and the fruit-tree yielding fruit, and it was so." Science 
declares that in the new soil, warm from earth's boiling 
centre, in an atmosphere loaded with carbonic acid gas, 
the very breath of vegetation, but in which no respiratory 
animal could live, there appeared generations of gigantic 
fern-trees, rushes and club mosses — a profuse luxuriance 
unparalleled in after ages. Dank savannas or meadows 
sustained rushes thirty feet high, single frondes of fern- 
trees were six or eight feet long, and the fluted trunks of 
club mosses were sixty or seventy feet high and five feet 
in diameter. Awful throes and upheavals from the un- 
quiet internal fires, overturned these monstrous vegetable 



1 Dawson's Archaia. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, \\ 

growths, and they were smothered and charred into what 
are now the coal-beds of the earth, where their gigantic 
forms may sometimes be seen in perfect outline. In 
each successive age the vegetable growth became less 
rank and more varied, as the atmosphere cleared from 
poisonous gases, preparing without haste for the introduc- 
tion of animal life. As this protracted period drew to 
a close, the young moon looked through the now trans- 
parent atmosphere, the sun in all its brilliancy appeared, 
" and the evening and the morning were the fourth day." 

But the moon and the sun had existed for ages. By 
the recognized laws of physics, the earth is younger than 
they ; the Bible seems to state that the sun was made even 
after vegetation had appeared, — a patent absurdity. The 
word translated " made two great lights " is not the same 
word in Hebrew as that which signifies created, it is the 
same as that often used when the meaning is appointed 
or constituted, as it is said, " God made Joseph lord over 
Egypt," " God made David the head of the heathen." 
An eminent linguist would translate the words " Let there 
be lights," " Let there appear lights." 1 The sun and moon 
had long existed, but now shone for the first time through 
the purified atmosphere. 

And God said, " Let the waters bring forth abundantly 
the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly 
above the earth, and God created great whales." The word 
tanninim, rendered whales in this place, is sometimes 
construed dragons, and more properly signifies great 
reptiles?' Geology shows, from fossil remains, that 
huge reptiles, fowls and fishes, made their appearance at 



1 Dr. Geddes and Dr. Kitto. 2 Jer. li. 37. 



42 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



this age, which, by their peculiar constitution, were 
able to breathe the still imperfectly purified air, hor- 
rible creatures " clad in coat of mail, helmed in bony 
plates with long powerful spines and fearful conical 
teeth." The Ichthyosaurus, and Plesiosaurus which 
seems a cross between a swan and a serpent twelve 
or fifteen feet long, a hideous frog-like animal, named 
the Labyrinthodon, and a gigantic reptile bird whose 
rocky foot-prints measure fifteen or twenty inches. 
These fierce and frightful creatures roamed the vast con- 
tinents or ploughed the seas from -pole to pole for food, 
in uncouth gambols. The warm throbbing breast of young 
mother earth had then felt none of the frosts and chills 
of age and knew no Arctic zone. " The evening and the 
morning were the fifth day/' 

And God said, " Let the earth bring forth the living 
creature, cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth 
after his kind ; and God saw that it was good." Science 
confirms without demur this record of the order of crea- 
tion. The consummation approaches : the fair, beautiful 
earth has been through untold ages perfected by the power 
of Omnipotence. It is a Paradise, a very garden of the 
Lord, all animate and inanimate nature awaits its Master. 
" And God said, i Let us make man in our image,* * * and 
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the fowl of the air, and the cattle and over all the earth, 
and over everything that creepeth upon the earth.' " 

" And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 
and man became a living soul." 

" And God said, ' It is not good that man should be 
alone, I will make him a helpmeet for him,' and the 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 43 

Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he 
slept, and he took one of the ribs and closed up the flesh 
thereof, and the rib which the Lord God had taken made 
he a woman, and brought her unto the man ; and the 
evening and the morning were the sixth day." 

" Thus were the heavens and the earth finished, and all 
the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended 
his work which he had made. ,, 

Science again confirms the word of Scripture, for it 
asserts that man is the latest creation, no new species 
having been added, though many have become extinct. 

Thus tracing creation through successive days or 
eras, we perceive no discrepancy between the Mosaic 
account and the latest deductions of science. The order 
of the genesis is represented to be precisely what the 
most profound scientists believe it must have been. 

There is a school of philosophers who denounce the 
Bible because it seems to represent the world as having 
been formed by distinct successive acts of creation. 
They speak wisely though very indefinitely of evolution, 
embryology, natural selection, etc. 

No doubt, a machine so constructed, that by the self- 
adaptation of one grand primal force, it could maintain 
a continuity of creative offices, would be vastly more to 
the glory of the inventor than numerous machines each 
of which was confined to a specialty. Simplicity in 
complication is what man seeks in vain. In our Book it 
does not appear whether God created the world by 
independent acts, in successive stages, or infused into 
the material of the universe a principle or power which 
made it self-perpetuating and self-transforming; in either 
case, it is proper to say " God made," whether by evolu- 



44 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

tion or by direct agency. He was the Great First Cause, 
and that language is accurate and truthful, which repre- 
sents God as the Creator of " the world and all that is 
therein/' 

Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, 
but he got from them no hint of the Nebular Hypothesis. 
Their cosmogony was in many respects fallacious and 
inaccurate, and geology is pre-eminently a modern science. 
Where then did he get such an insight into the ulti- 
mate results of scientific research? And more inex- 
plicable still, how was it possible for him to guard his 
language so adroitly, that during the ages of darkness 
and ignorance it should seem consistent with the popular 
belief, no violence being done to the crude theories of 
the pious reader, and now, in the illumination of this 
century, it should be discovered that in these same 
few simple words he foreshadowed all that science has 
toilsomely unveiled ? There is but one answer to 
these questions, Moses was inspired ! 

Our primogenitors, Adam and Eve, were highly honor- 
ed by the preparation of such a stately and beautiful resi- 
dence, where everything combined to please the taste and 
satisfy their animal wants ; but a part of their dowry, yet 
to be mentioned, transcended every other gift — this per- 
ishable world was not to be their permanent home : " God 
breathed into Adam the breath of life, and he became 
a living soul" an immortal image of his Maker. This 
glorious but fearful birthright he has transmitted to his 
posterity, souls that will live when the " bright heavens 
shall pass away like a scroll, and the elements shall 
melt with fervent heat ;" when all the works of man, so 
laboriously achieved, his ships and manufactories, canals 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 45 

and railroads, bridges and palaces, storehouses of treas- 
ure, and galleries of art, shall be burned up in a universal 
conflagration. All these shall vanish away into the cold 
realms of vacancy, and become again a misty nebula with- 
out form and void. But the soul of man, imperishable, 
immortal, will live on through the eternity of God, for- 
ever and forever. 

Then while we perform the labor of the hour, the 
earthly toil which our hands find to do, let us listen with 
serious attention to the low voice of our immortal nature, 
" For through the deep caves of thought, I hear a voice 
that sings," 

" Build thee more stately mansions, oh my soul, 
As the swift seasons roll ; 
Leave thy low vaulted past ; 
Let each new temple, loftier than the last, 
Point toward heaven with dome more vast, 
Till thou at last art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by Life's unresting sea." 



CHAPTER II. 

ANTEDILUVIAN MAN AND HIS ASSOCIATES. 
" There were giants in those days." 

CREATION was finished, and, in the metaphorical 
language of Scripture, " God rested from his la- 
bor," and the seventh day began ; the day of the dwelling 
of mankind upon this lovely orb in which we and all our 
species are enacting the great drama of human life ; a 
day which will close by convulsions of the elements, 
grand and awful as those that ushered in its dawn, — 
chaos, re-formation, and a new world into which sin will 
never enter. 

Central Asia, it is probable, was the cradle of the hu- 
man race — all the early emigrations were eastward or west- 
ward from a common Asiatic centre. Traditions of the 
most intelligent portion of humanity, the Aryan tribes, 
point to the western terminus of the Himalaya Moun- 
tains as the location of Eden. The largest rivers of 
Asia here take their rise, the Jaxartes and the Indus, 
(probably identical with the river Pison), the Djihon 
(Gihon) and Euphrates, two Bible names still preserved. 
To the west stretches a vast fertile plain watered by these 
four majestic rivers. " The land of Havilah, rich in gold,' 1 
is the country of Dadara, near Cashmere, celebrated for 
its riches, and is called Oudyana (Eden) to this day. 1 

1 Anc. His. of the East. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 47 

In this beautiful land, very unlike our limited ideas of 
a garden, were placed the first human pair. They were 
called Adam — Man ; and Chavah or Eva — Life. The 
climate of their lovely home was delicious — subject to no 
violent change; the productive soil yielded to their light 
labor, nourishing fruits and grains which satisfied their 
unvitiated appetites. Their perfect organizations knew 
neither disease nor fatigue ; the lower animals lived in 
peace around them and acknowledged their dominion. 
There was no mutual fear, for there was no conflict, and 
tradition says that they all had the gift of speech. The 
obligations of religion, obedience and self-denial were as 
simple as their characters. There was no necessity for 
prayer. God had supplied every want ; they had no pity 
to implore nor anger to deprecate ; no sacrifice was re- 
quired, for there was no sin to atone. 

How long this life of innocent happiness continued we 
know not. God was revealed to them and the knowl- 
edge gave them happiness ; but a dark day approaches, 
whose gloomy shadow is projected upon the fair blank 
of all future time. Another spiritual being visits the 
new world, malignant and evil, and knowing of the single 
prohibition God had made, and the dreadful penalty 
attached to it ; under the form of a serpent, he accosts 
Eve, and persuades her that eating of the forbidden fruit 
will not be for their destruction, but " they will become 
as gods, knowing good and evil." Eve yielded to the 
artifice of the Destroyer, Adam, without remonstrance or 
demur, joined in the transgression, and in one fatal mo- 
ment a change passed upon the destiny of the human 
race. 

It is useless to speculate upon the nature of the tree 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 



of knowledge or the reason for the prohibition, the result 
of the trial and the consequence are what vitally concern 
us ; but a question which has always puzzled the thoughtful 
enquirer forces itself upon the mind : Why did God 
permit the temptation and allow sin to enter the world ? 
or when it had entered, why did he not at once put an 
end to it by the immediate death of the guilty pair ? 

These pertinent questions have never been satisfac- 
torily answered, but a few suggestions uoon the subject 
may be pardonable. 

Dr. Hallam profoundly remarks, " If man was made 
in the image of God, he was also made in the image of 
an ape. The framework of the body of him who has 
weighed the stars and made the lightning his slave ap- 
proaches to that of a speechless brute who wanders in 
the forest of Sumatra. Thus standing on the frontier 
land between animal and angelic natures, what wonder 
that he should partake of both ! " This strangely endowed 
antagonistic complex being, without free will, would have 
been a slave ; without responsibility he could have risen 
to no true dignity or manhood, and with volition, in such 
a nature, came the ability and proclivity to sin. 

We often confuse the ideas of innocence and virtue. 
Adam and Eve before the temptation were simply in- 
nocent, that is, without knowledge of sin. Now, virtue 
is that quality which enables men knowing sin and temp- 
tation, the fierce conflict between wicked impulse and 
conviction of duty, to rise above and triumph over all. 
" Only by the trial and the fall could confirmed virtue 
and permanent integrity of character be attained ! " l 
Amono; other sentiments of great beauty found in the 



I Dr. Hickok. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 49 

pocket-book of the honored father of the writer of this 
volume after his death, was this — " Evil stands in the 
world, that men may grow strong by wrestling with it." 
The struggle and frequent fall we can all see, but the 
strength thus acquired, God only can know and eternity 
alone reveal. 

Sin and its consequences are but too apparent ; with 
evil passion, sorrow, care, pain, sickness, old age, death 
and those horrors of human experience — murder, famine, 
pestilence and war, we are too surely acquainted, and we 
wonder that an Almighty Being should permit such guilt 
and misery ; but could we pierce the dark nimbus of human 
ill which veils the world of soul and character ; could our 
perceptions, dimmed by the mists of sin and mortality and 
narrowed by the near vision of temporal objects, but once 
comprehend our drift and bearing toward the spirit world, 
we might perceive the good of evil, and learn that in the 
glory of the triumphant virtue man has become grander 
and stronger than the archangels ! 

We have now to deal, not with the problem of the 
origin of sin, but its unhappy consequences. Adam and 
Eve have fallen, and as they pass in remorse and shame 
through the entrance of their home in Eden, and a barrier 
of flame forbids return, the first volume of Earth's history 
is closed ; innocence, happiness and Paradise have passed 
away forever ! 

According to an old Jewish tradition, the discord was 
so great between the unhappy pair that they lived apart 
for fifty years. The same legend states, that with the 
first born son, Cain, a twin daughter was born, named 
Achima, as one also with Abel, called Lebuda, and that by 
exchanging sisters they obtained wives. 

4 



50 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

These primeval men felt religious obligation, and 
offered to God a propitiation in the sacrifice of the fruits 
of their labor. The offering of Abel being more accept- 
able than that of Cain, evil passion filled his heart and 
prompted the murder of his brother. The penalty of sin 
was now apparent. Death, inexplicable horror ! had enter- 
ed the world. The wretched fratricide was driven from 
the companionship of his parents, a fugitive and* vaga- 
bond upon the earth. 

It is not to be supposed that there were but three men 
in the world at this time — Adam was at least 120 years 
old when Seth was born, soon after the death of Abel. 
Calculations have been made which show that there may 
have been thousands of inhabitants on the earth, descend- 
ants of the first pair. The statement that Cain feared he 
might be killed by some of them, and also that he soon 
after this built a city, justify the calculation. Adam lived 
800 years after Seth was born, and had other sons and 
daughters, but the names and genealogy of Seth and Cain 
only are given. 

In the tenth generation after Adam, according to our 
chronology, a terrible deluge swept away the greater part 
of the human race. The date of this remarkable event is 
uncertain. The Latin and English translations fix it in 
the year of the world, 1655. The Septuagint makes it 
2000 years later. There is no certain method of compu- 
tation ; the adding together the lives of the patriarchs is 
unreliable, from the fact that in Semitic records only the 
names and ages of men of mark are mentioned, several 
generations in a family being sometimes omitted in theii 
chronology. Frequently a dynasty is represented solely 
by the name of the founder. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 5 1 

The longevity of the antediluvians, as described in the 
Bible, has been considered incredible by physiologists ; 
but who is wise enough to pronounce upon this subject 
with certainty ? There may have been influences in the 
earth and air at that early period, which, combining with 
the superior vitality of a newly created race, produced 
results in the physical nature of man impossible at the 
presefit time. We may also remember in this connection 
that the use of animal food and intoxicating drink is not 
mentioned until after the Deluge. The undue stimulus 
to the nerves and increase of arterial action consequent 
upon the use of meat, together with disease engendered 
by taking into the system the flesh of animals themselves 
imperfect in health, and still more the use of narcotic 
stimulants, may have greatly facilitated the process of 
decay and dissolution. 

Under the exceptionally favoring circumstances of 
genial climate, fruitful soil, intense vitality and extreme 
longevity, it is highly probable that the earth, in the 
vicinity of Eden at least, was densely populated and its 
civilization greatly perfected. The reasons for this belief 
are numerous and conclusive. The fourth generation 
from Cain is spoken of as greatly advanced in the 
arts and in agriculture. In the wonderfully gifted 
family of Lamech, Jabal was the father of such as dwell 
in tents and have cattle; Jubal, the father of such as 
handle the harp and organ ; Tubal Cain, the instructor of 
every artificer in brass 1 and iron. The inventions of 
this man were so important that his fame has been per- 
petuated in many nations. It is stated in the Phoenician 

1 Bronze. 



52 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



and Hindoo mythologies, that in the seventh generation 
two brothers were born who discovered iron and the 
forging thereof, and these nations had deities whose 
names signify heating and hammering. This great in- 
ventor was deified in Vulcan, the blacksmith god of Greece 
and Rome. 

The Talmud says that the sister of Tubal Cain, 
Naamah, was the inventor of spinning and weaving. 
Was ever talent so concentrated in one family ? renown- 
ed since the earliest ages as agriculturists, artisans, 
metallurgists, musicians, manufacturers ! 

With what gigantic strides the world went forward ! 
How rapid the growth of the arts and sciences ! Though 
there is no hint in the Bible of an antediluvian literature, 
it seems almost certain, inferential ly, that such must have 
existed. A people so numerous and advanced in civiliza- 
tion, with a history of thousands of years, with but one 
mode of speech, with the social status consequent upon 
the consolidation of men in cities, must necessarily have 
used some kind of written language — and here tradition 
comes to enlighten us. It asserts that the patriarch 
Seth, foreseeing the coming destruction, inscribed upon 
two stone pillars the most important part of human 
knowledge ; and books purporting to have been written 
by Seth and Enoch still exist in Asia. It is also said 
that Noah, when warned of the coming Flood, was com- 
manded to write a history of the beginning, procedure, 
and consummation of all things, and bury it at Sip- 
para. Chaldean history also mentions an antedilu- 
vian sage called " Alemon of Sippara." This word Sip- 
para signifies The City of Books ! a flash of light thrown 
backward into the dark night of antediluvian mystery ! 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 53 

Progress must have been inconceivably rapid in that 
early time. Give a man a thousand years of mature 
strength in which to perfect his inventions, and who 
can calculate his achievements ! In our little space, we 
toil and scheme and plan ; but with ideas half developed, 
with designs half formed, with labor half accomplished, 
we pass into the land of silence and forgetfulness and 
• our great interests perish! How ephemeral appear our 
manufactories, railroads, aqueducts, mines, agricultural 
operations, and political schemes ! How our greatest 
enterprises sink into insignificance before the stupendous 
undertakings of those primeval days, when the vigorous 
young earth yielded her treasures to the energy of men 
whose strong hearts could beat on firmly for a thousand 
years ! Yet let us remember all that has been accomplished 
since the discovery of this continent four hundred years 
ago, less than half the term of one antediluvian life, and 
this has been effected not by a few master spirits, who 
could, with unbroken health, direct their energies to one 
object for eight or nine hundred years, but by the ill- 
matching fragmentary efforts of thousands of inharmonious 
minds. The period was longer, certainly, between the 
creation of man and the Deluge than that since the 
Christian era, and when we reflect upon the inventions, 
explorations, colonizations and general progress of hu- 
manity since that time, we may arrive at some proximate 
calculation as to the probable condition of the world under 
the favorable circumstances before alluded to. It is not im- 
probable that antediluvian civilization exceeded our own ! 

Traditions of the Fall of Man are almost universal in 
the human family. Dr. Kitto has collected some of the 
most remarkable. 



54 FROM DA IV N TO SUNRISE. 

" The Chinese believe that man was originally inno- 
cent, happy, and dutiful to the gods. But a desire for 
knowledge, or the temptation of his wife, overcame him, 
and he lost his self-control and spiritual life. The lower 
animals became his enemies ; his days, which had before 
been prolonged to an incredible length, were shortened, 
the spontaneous production of the earth ceased, virtue 
and happiness left the world.'' 

In the Hindoo religion we find some remarkable 
myths. Brahma made men free from guilt and with no 
need of religious observances. Their lives were careless, 
happy and instinctively pure. But, unhappily, Kali, which 
means Time or the Devil, infused into their nature the 
seeds of evil, their perfections were impaired, sin gained 
strength, and mortals became subject to pain. Then 
Chrisna, one of the incarnate gods, pitying the afflictions 
of dying mortals, fought the serpent monarch Kali 
Naga, who had poisoned the river of life, and after a 
prolonged and fearful struggle destroyed the monster. " It 
is a remarkable coincidence that the Sanscrit name of the 
serpent king is Naga, the plural of which Nacigs, and the 
Hebrew word used for the tempter of Eve is Nachash ; " 
and there is assuredly a striking similarity in the name of 
the incarnate Saviour of the Hindoo Chrisna and that 
of our Christ. The Hindoo sacred writings represent 
the tree of life as bearing fruit of fire, while its leaves 
distil the water of life. When men stole the fruit and 
learned the use of fire, the gods, enraged at their impiety > 
shortened their lives and subjected them to innumerable 
evils. 

The Greek legend is, that man was created sinless 
and happy, but Prometheus stole fire from heaven and 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 55 

men learned its use. To punish them for their audacity 
Jupiter ordered Vulcan to form a woman from clay, upon 
whom the gods bestowed every grace, but gave her an 
evil heart. Pandora came to earth, bringing with 
her a mysterious casket which she was commanded 
not to open. Man gladly accepted the divine gift, but 
disobeyed the command, and from the opened casket 
issued trouble, disease, grief and every evil, which be- 
came disseminated throughout the world. The gods, 
pitying the infirmity of man's nature, had placed one 
antidote to his misfortune in the bottom of the box 
— hope, which would sustain him in the midst of the 
greatest trials. 

Apollo is sometimes represented as shooting the 
serpent Python with his arrows, and for this act was 
crowned in the vale of Tempe with a garland of the 
leaves or fruit of the forbidden tree. 

It was also related that in a garden in the west (Hes- 
perides), a dragon guarded a tree which bore golden ap- 
ples. Hercules, a demigod, destroyed the serpent and 
gathered the apples. A garden was consecrated to his 
worship, and here, it was said, grew two remarkable trees, 
one of which distilled drops of blood. Women were ex- 
cluded from this garden, and lions and a flaming sword 
were placed before the entrance to prevent the approach 
of the unholy. 

There was a remarkable ceremony in the worship of 
Bacchus, where the god was drawn in a car by lions and 
other wild beasts, while men in attendance with serpents 
in their hands waved them around, shouting frantically, 
Eva ! Eva ! 

Upon antique bas-reliefs and gems is sometimes seen 



5 6 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

a man and woman standing naked and disconsolate under 
a tree, and at a little distance a grand looking person sits 
upon a rock strangling a serpent. 

In the ancient Persian book called the Bundehesh is 
a story of the Fall of Man, through the temptation of a 
serpent, very much like the Mosaic account. 

A traditional remembrance of antediluvian longevity 
is also preserved. The Chaldeans believed there were 
ten antediluvian kings whose lives were prolonged thou- 
sands of years. The Hindoo writings mention ten won- 
derful men as the ten fathers, whose lives were of incred- 
ible length. The Persian sacred books state that the 
Iranian or Aryan race began with the reign of ten men 
of the ancient law who lived on Homa, the pure water of 
life, and preserved their sanctity. The Chinese begin 
their history with the lives of ten divine men who were 
the first emperors. The Scandinavians believed in the 
ten ancestors of Odin ; and the Arabs that ten kings 
ruled over the Adites, the primordial people of their 
country. 

We have obtained, from the brief but most valuable 
material of our own sacred writings, and from corrobora- 
tive traditions of many nations, a tolerably perfect idea 
of the condition and character of primitive man. We 
find him located in a genial climate, with all the requisites 
for a dense population, skilled in agriculture, raising 
domestic animals, advanced in the useful and fine arts, 
music and architecture certainly, with religion, and, from 
traditional hints, a literature, with cities and necessarily 
by implication, organized society, means of transportation 
and commerce and a chronology of many thousands of 
years. Let us make our humble obeisance to these grand 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 57 

men of the olden time whom we have sometime in our 
ignorance imagined were half-clad savages. 

We will now turn our attention to primitive man as 
exhibited by the science of geology, which conveys a very 
different impression with regard to the men of remote 
antiquity, and which has been supposed to be in irrecon- 
cilable conflict with the dictum of Scripture and tradition. 
The sincere inquirer for truth will desire to ascertain if 
there is any way to harmonize the apparent contradiction. 

In comprehensive works on geology there are allusions 
to, and speculations on, primitive man and his imperfect 
civilization. Remains of human bones, weapons and uten- 
sils of stone and bronze, pointed axes, chipped flint sharp- 
ened for cutting or notched for sawing, are found in va- 
rious parts of Europe and America, buried in alluvium, 
in sand deposits of caves, in dried up river beds and in 
other sand drifts. Near them are found the bones of 
enormous brutes, where they had been thrown after the 
flesh was removed ; some of the larger bones are crushed 
as if for the purpose of removing the marrow. The flint 
weapons are encrusted with a white powder, a disintegra- 
tion of their own substance, which proves their great age. 
There are conclusive indications that, at the period of the 
earth's development called the quarternary, some portions 
of its surface from a high temperature had suddenly 
become excessively cold. Various theories are advanced to 
explain this change. It is thought by some geologists, that 
uncommon volcanic throes, when the crust of the earth 
was less hardened than at present, temporarily raised the 
altitude of the continents to the line of perpetual frost. 
By others it is supposed that grand cosmical changes 
caused by the earth's position in the great cycle, called the 



S3 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

precession of the equinoxes, may, in some manner un- 
known, have produced these great variations in the earth's 
temperature, carrying it through warm or cold spaces. 
The latest theory is, that there have been since the crea- 
tion many ice ages, the result of a double complication 
in the motion of the earth ; the oscillation of its axis, and 
a change in the form of its orbit round the sun ; these 
movements being caused by the combined attraction of 
the heavenly bodies, the slow adjustments requiring about 
twenty-four thousand years for their consummation. 

An excess of water had frozen during the last cold 
period, and immense glaciers ground and thundered their 
way across the newly risen continents. A change to a 
more genial climate followed ; as soon as the slowly rising 
temperature would permit, a hardy vegetation was pro- 
duced, and monstrous animals appeared, unlike any now 
existing : the megatherium, megalonyx, hipparion, mam- 
moths, aurochs, enormous bulls and deer, gigantic cave 
bears, hyenas, and lions. 

The savage men of whom we have spoken then ap- 
peared, dwelling in caves, and subsisting by hunting and 
fishing. Only two human skulls of this age have been 
found, one of them is of average size and fair cranial 
development. These men must have lived miserable 
lives, suffering greatly from cold and a precarious suste- 
nance, depending upon the success of their encounters 
with the fierce carnivora around them which they some- 
times decoyed into pitfalls and traps. Rough drawings of 
these strange animals have been found scratched upon 
slate, ivory, and bone, the work of primordial artists. 

An advance in the civilization of these savage men 
is discovered in more finished and polished implements, 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 59 

and rude attempts at ornaments found in peat-beds and 
mounds. Here are seen the familiar bones ot our domes- 
tic and wild animals, the horse, stag, sheep, goat, wild 
boar, wolf, dog> fox, badger, and hare. The most interest- 
ing of these relics are the lake villages of Switzerland, 
Savoy, Italy and Greece. The lake dwellers drove long 
piles into the muddy bottom of the lakes and upon them 
constructed platforms and huts, from which they went in 
rafts or boats in the morning to hunt or gather fruits, re- 
tiring to them on the approach of night. The lakes 
under these villages have been carefully dredged, and in 
the debris of their households, beside bones and utensils, 
have been discovered fragments of rude pottery and even 
shreds of cloth. The scientific calculate from the known 
rate of sand and peat deposits that the most remote of 
these men must have lived tens, possibly hundreds of 
thousands of years ago. These facts and deductions 
confirm the disbelief of infidels and stagger the faith of 
literal Bible students, who understand that creation took 
place 6000 years ago, and that our book declares Adam 
to be the only man God ever made. 

The conclusions of both are probably erroneous. We 
have seen that there is no Bible chronology, and no date 
is given by which any certainty can be attained ; on the 
other hand, the calculations of geologists are also unreli- 
able, for the rate of alluvial deposit at the present day is 
very variable, and in earlier ages, when geological changes 
were upon a grander scale, and affected by causes un- 
known to us, the formations may have been much more 
rapid or retarded, so that nothing definite can be de- 
termined, except that these primeval men did exist in 
very remote ages, that their mode of life was anomalous, 



60 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

that contemporary animals were unlike anything known 
in history. 

Allowing their era to be uncertain, whence came these 
prehistoric men ? Unlike the antediluvians of the Bible, 
they were absolute savages. Were they of Adam's race ? 
The Mosaic account is brief and not conclusive. It men- 
tions but three sons of Adam by name. Abel was early 
lost, and the descendants of Seth and Cain only are cata- 
logued. Cain was driven away from his early home a 
fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. In his remorse 
and terror, he may have wandered far from his friends, 
leaving in the vicinity of Eden his first son Enoch, the 
primogenitor of the highly gifted families mentioned. 
The children born to him after this time may have been 
the fathers of these wild nomads in Europe and America. 
Or the children of Adam born during the eight hundred 
years which he lived subsequent to the birth of Seth may 
have been the wanderers whose numerous progeny inhabit- 
ed these far-off regions. There is nothing in the sacred 
writings irreconcilable with such a theory. Our book is 
not a history of the world nor a revelation of science ; it 
records the dealings of God in the one particular family 
who were to be honored by the advent of the Christ. All 
that is written outside of this history is incidental and 
incomplete. Of course every syllable is precious, and we 
are at liberty to form any rational theory, which is consist- 
ent with the spirit of the text. One expression in Gen. 
viii. 21, 22, may have some obscure reference to these 
primitive men and the cold period : " And the Lord said 
<* * * I w iH n ot again curse the ground any more for 
man's sake * * * ' While the earth remaineth, seed time 
and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 61 

night, shall not cease," implying that such a miserable 
state of things had existed. 

Setting aside these theories, it is possible that the 
primitive men of geology were not of Adam's race ; if 
they were not, the authenticity of the Bible is not im- 
pugned, for it nowhere states that Adam was the only 
man God ever created, and the fact that we have so 
believed, certainly does not make it so. It is said that 
" He made of one blood all the nations of the Earth/' 
That may have been true at the time when the state- 
ment was made, but it does not follow that it includes 
the primordial ages ; there may have been Preadamite, as 
there may yet be Postadamite races on this earth, so in 
any event there is no necessary discrepancy between 
the Bible and geology in this respect. 

The position occupied by these savage men and their 
era will probably be left a subject for harmless specula- 
tion forever ; but there was another class of beings who 
inhabited the antediluvian world, and mingled in the 
affairs of men, of whom we have definite information, 
but of whose existence we have remained in profound 
ignorance. I allude to incarnate angels, who formed 
the most intimate connections with mortal women and 
left upon earth a progeny physically magnificent and 
spiritually corrupt, " the earth was filled with violence 
through them," until the endurance of a patient God 
was exhausted. 

The most dreadful calamity recorded in the annals of 
the world is now impending ; a cataclysm of extraordinary 
extent is to sweep away the vast population we have been 
contemplating, and all their wonderful works must perish 
with them ! What could have moved a benevolent Crea- 



62 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

tor to inflict such a tremendous punishment ? We read 
in Gen., 6th chapter, " And when men began to multiply- 
on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto 
them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men tfaat 
they were fair, and they took them wives of all they choose 
* * * There were giants on the earth in those days, and 
also after the sons of God came unto the daughters of 
men, they bore children to them. These were the mighty 
men, who of old were the men of renown " (revised ver- 
sion of the Am. Bible Union), "And God saw that the 
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every 
imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil 
continually " * * * " and God said to Noah : ' The end of all 
flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with vio- 
lence through them, and behold I will destroy them with 
the earth.' " Here is the answer to our inquiry. As we 
have been taught, this means that the worshippers of 
Jehovah, the Sethites, had married the daughters of 
Cain, who, it is presumed, were ungodly persons. This 
explanation has not one word in the Book to justify it — 
it is far-fetched and absurd, and would make a merciful 
and benevolent Deity liable to the charge of gross in- 
consistency. Have not such marriages often taken place 
since that time ? Is not the history of the Jewish as 
well as the Christian church full of the record of similar 
unions ? And are they not common at the present time ? 
And more, have there not been committed since the 
Deluge, crimes and abominations as horrible as the heart 
of man could devise, which, according to God's own law, 
are vastly more odious and deadly than any mere mar- 
riage could possibly be, and yet no such sweeping retri- 
bution as the great Deluge has followed ? Let us lay 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 6$ 

aside the theories of commentators, who are warping the 
text to meet a hypothesis or a prejudice, and try to get 
its meaning as we should if it were a story of the early 
history of England or France. The first thing to deter- 
mine would be, who the sons of God were. In Job we 
read, " the sons of God came together, and Satan came 
also among them, etc.," and again, " the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." 
This last passage refers to the creation of the world, 
before man existed, and in both cases it evidently means 
angels ; and in the book of Daniel, where the three men 
walked in the fiery furnace, a fourth form appeared who 
struck terror to the beholders because it " was like the 
form of a son of God," a supernatural, celestial being. 

The " sons of God " who married the daughters of 
men it is apparent were angels, and their children were 
the giants, mighty men, wicked and violent, who filled the 
earth with superhuman crime and iniquity. This cer- 
tainly is the common-sense meaning as it would strike 
the candid reader, but fearing it might be erroneous, and 
that some other interpretation might be found in the 
original writing, I consulted the eminent Hebraist, Prof. 
C. M. Mead, of Andover, whose opinion, kindly given, was 
substantially as follows : "The phrase 'Bne Elohim', sons 
v of God," occurs in Gen. vi. 2, 4, and in Job i. 6, and ii. 
1. In these cases the Hebrew is the same. In Dan iii. 
25, the phrase "son of God" has the Chaldee rather than 
the Hebrew form. In Psalms xxix. 1, and lxxxix. 6, 
where the English reads " Oh ye mighty," the Hebrew 
is Bne Elim — no doubt the same as Elohim. In all these 
passages, unless we except those in Genesis, the phrase un- 
doubtedly means angels. There it probably would have 



64 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 

been so understood but for the apparent absurdity. The 
feeling has been, that the marriage of angels with women 
was impossible, therefore the expression " sons of God " 
cannot refer to angels. There are, however, many among 
more recent commentators, who hold that we are to un- 
derstand the phrase to have the same meaning as in Job, 
and I confess I belong to the latter class. The word Ha 
Adam, means mankind, the same word which is used in 
referring to the daughters of men, and the very antithesis, 
" daughters of men " and " sons of God/' make it almost 
impossible to understand the latter as of men. The 
phrase daughters of men means simply Women ; there is 
nothing to suggest the meaning of bad women (Cainites). 
Further, it is difficult to see how the marriage of pious 
men with wicked women would have produced the conse- 
quences described. The giants, it is apparent, were the 
products of this union, and it is absurd to suppose such a 
result would be the consequence of an incongruity in 
the character of the parents ; but we can readily believe 
such a progeny may have been produced if the marriage 
was a thoroughly unnatural one. It also seems reasona- 
ble that such a sweeping destruction as the Deluge should 
be necessary, in case of a corruption of both the physical 
and spiritual nature, rather than in that of simple spiritual 
depravity. 

The statement, " the same became mighty men, which 
were of old, (the) men of renown," is easily and naturally 
explained by supposing it refers to mythological heroes 
and demi-gods, the progeny of gods in union with mor- 
tals. 

The New Testament throws light upon this subject. 
In Jude vi. 7 we read, " And the angels, which kept not 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 65 

their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath 
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the 
judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah 
and the cities about them, in like manner giving them- 
selves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, 
are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of 
eternal fire," also in 2 Peter ii. 4, " God spared not the 
angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and deliver- 
ed them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judg- 
ment, and spared not the old world, bringing in the flood 
upon the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and 
Gomorrah into ashes." 

It may be also observed that, if a forbidden connection 
between the descendants of Seth and Cain is implied in 
the text under consideration (of which there is not the 
slightest indication), it is very singular that there were 
no marriages between pious women and ungodly men. 
Such a one-sided connection is well-nigh inconceivable. 

And again, how can we explain the expression " saw 
that the daughters of men were fair ? " Is it likely that 
beauty was confined to the Cainites, wicked women ? But 
the sense is made plain if it describes an unnatural course 
of angelic beings. 

Looked at according to the ordinary and only safe 
rules of interpretation, we can understand this passage to 
mean nothing less than that the angels that kept not 
their first estate, left their habitation and went after 
strange flesh, and that the consequences of this un- 



1 This theory throws light on the passage 1 Cor. xi. 10: "For 
this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of 
the angels.'''' 

5 



66 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 

natural union were wiped out by the Flood. The state- 
ment of our Saviour, that the angels neither marry nor are 
given in marriage, proves nothing more than that such is 
the normal and at present actual condition of angels. In 
Noah's time the rule was violated, and an exceptional 
punishment followed the exceptional sin. 

A careful examination of the story of the destruction 
of the cities of the plain will, by showing the parallel 
drawn in these two passages, as also by our Saviour in 
Luke xvii. 26, 28, classing the Deluge and destruction 
of Sodom together, place this interpretation beyond a 
doubt. 

This view of the subject clears up the mystery of the 
allusion in Isaiah xiv. 12, etc. : " How art thou fallen 
Lucifer, son of the morning ! * * * For thou hast said, I 
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the 
stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the con- 
gregation, in the sides of the north. * * Yet thou shalt 
be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They 
that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider, 
saying : Is this the man that made the earth to tremble 
and did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilder- 
ness and destroyed the cities thereof ? that opened not 
the house of his prisoners ? ***** 

" Prepare slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of 
their fathers, that they do not rise nor possess the land, 
nor fill the face of the world with cities." In this passage 
the punishment of Babylon seems compared with the fall 
and punishment of some angel who aspired to subvert the 
government of Jehovah. If the meaning of the word 
Babylon as given in the chapter on Ophiolatry is correct, 
it may be a generic name, not for one particular city only, 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 67 

but used, as in the Revelations, to signify the kingdom of 
the Evil One. 

We will again sound our historical bell and catch its 
faint vibrations. Numerous traditions confirm the state- 
ment of the Bible. The demi-gods of Greek and Roman 
mythology appear no longer impossibilities. They refer 
to the demi-celestials of the Mosaic writings. The oldest 
Persian books describe the great wickedness of the chil- 
dren of the Wicked One, who lived in the early ages of the 
world and who perished in an extraordinary rain-storm 
sent for their destruction. 

The Aztec tradition is, that a race of giants lived on 
the earth before the Flood, who were exceedingly wicked. 

The reputed writings of Seth, still existing in Asia, 
contain the story of the love of Star Spirits for the women 
of this world, by which a race of genii were produced. 
Fragments of the lost book of Enoch, translated into Greek, 
relate that two hundred angels came down to reside near 
Mount Hermon, (was this " the mount of the congregation 
in the sides of the north?") lured from heaven by the love 
of beautiful women. The names of some of them are still 
preserved : Urakarbarmiel, Sanyanza, Zamiel, Akbiel. A 
race of giants were the fruits of these marriages. The 
Apochryphal Bcok of Tobit contains a similar story of the 
love of Asmodeus, 1 an evil spirit, for Sarah, a beautiful and 
pious woman. 

The views here advanced are in contravention of many 
of our old prejudices, but I believe they will be found in 
accordance with the truth for which we seek, and to 
whose majesty we must all sooner or later bow. 

1 Asmodeus, literally, the spirit of concupisence. 



63 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 



We can hardly conceive the appalling condition of 
the earth while under this perverted angelic sway ! If 
the allusion to the ambition and fall of Lucifer in Isaiah 
is a reference to this strange period of the world's history, 
we there get a glimpse of the proud despotic cruelty 
which over-mastered the sons of men, and in its towering 
ambition aspired even to the partnership of God's ever- 
lasting throne, " For thou hast said in thine heart, I will 
ascend into heaven ; I will make my throne above the 
stars of God ; * * I will ascend above the heights of the 
clouds ; I will be like the Most High." 

How bright and beautiful in form, how grasping in 
intellect and evil, must have been the sons of such a 
father ! Lucifer, the light bearer ! " Mighty men, the 
men of renown/' Demigods! How vainly we strive to im- 
agine the pursuits, achievements and adventures of their 
lives, the magnificence of their dress and equipage, the 
cities they built, the empires they wielded ! and we shud- 
der at the thought of their terrible capacity and power 
for evil ! These are the men " that made the earth to 
tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world a 
wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened 
not the house of their prisoners ! The earth was filled 
with violence through them." 

From this investigation we learn that no definite chron- 
ology can be determined from our sacred writings ; that 
the age of the world at the time of the Deluge was much 
greater than has been commonly supposed ; that a portion 
of the earth at least was densely populated and advanced 
in civilization ; that probably the human race, from the 
migration of Cain or the later sons of Adam, was already 
scattered over the earth, far from their early home, and 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 69 

the pre-historic men of geological discovery may have been 
their descendants. We have also learned that the sin 
which required such a tremendous punishment was of no 
ordinary character. Wicked celestial beings had de- 
scended upon the earth and subverted its government. 
Becoming incarnate, they walked the earth and mingled 
in its affairs. Their union in marriage with women pro- 
duced an unnatural race and unnatural crime, which made 
necessary a dreadful extermination. 

We have obtained a new idea of the spiritual world, 
and can more clearly comprehend the words of St. Paul : 
" It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body!' 
Perhaps embodied spirits are even now permitted to 
visit the earth, but our vision, enfeebled like our vitality, 
cannot discern them, as the gifted antediluvians and 
their immediate successors, Abraham, Lot, Jacob and 
Elisha, could do. 

The monstrous crimes and cruelties introduced into 
the world by the unnatural beings who possessed it at this 
momentous era have never been approximated, it is prob- 
able, even in the worst days of Sodom and Gomorrah, of 
decadent Rome, or revolutionary France. Powerful in 
will and intelligence, giants in physical strength, relying 
upon the aid of their immortal sires, abandoned to iniquity, 
with what intolerable tyranny would they oppress common 
humanity ! How soon would all earthly power be sub- 
jected to their control ! How easily bend all law to their 
desire, bear down all opposition and overwhelm the pious 
worshippers of Jehovah ! Men had given up the unequal 
strife, and drifted with the stream of ungodliness. Per- 
haps they thought God was powerless or indifferent, and 
had abandoned the world to their sway. u For they say 



70 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

the Lord hath forsaken the earth, the Lord seeth not." 
If vengeance is coming, why the long delay ? They 
forgot that in the execution of God's eternal affairs there 
is no haste for man's impatience and no delay for his 
despair. The machinery of the universe moved on ; a few 
more revolutions, a few more years of triumphant and 
confident sin, and the gathered vengeance came — the 
unalterable decree was passed that sealed their doom : 
" Behold the end of all flesh is come before me, and I will 
destroy them with the earth ! " One man alone had pre- 
served his integrity, one man alone realized the danger, 
his solemn prophetic voice startled them from their secu- 
rity " Repent ! Repent ! " it cried, " before the thunders 
of insulted Heaven shall burst upon your guilty heads ! " 
They laughed at his earnestness, they sneered at his 
fanaticism ! The warning fell unheeded. Reckless and 
besotted they rushed on to destruction. " They ate, they 
drank, they bought, they sold, they married and were 
given in marriage," while the awful shadow upon the 
Dial of Eternity crept steadily forward to the hour of 
Doom. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE DELUGE. 

11 The area covered by the water, when compared with the huge bulk of the 
earth, would be but as a dent made by the thumb upon the rind of an apple ! " 

AT the period which closed our last subject were 
heard the mutterings of the overwhelming storm 
which was soon to burst upon a guilty world. 

That portion of the earth nearest the cradle of the 
human race was densely populated ; the arts and sciences 
were greatly advanced, for the knowledge our first pa- 
rents had obtained at so dear a price had produced 
abundant fruit ; but a strange transformation had come 
over the human family. A terrible race of beings, the 
offspring of angels and women, were filling the earth. 
They were physically powerful, " there were giants in 
those days," and they were of grasping ambition, intel- 
lect and energy, " mighty men, the men of renown." 
But they were powerful only for evil, their fathers were 
fallen angels and their mothers sinful women, and the 
children inherited a double portion of power, capacity, 
and proclivity to sin. Their nature was entirely cor- 
rupt, and they filled the earth with violence and wicked- 
ness, " every imagination of the thoughts of their heart 
was only evil continually.'' 



72 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

In consequence of this anomalous and abominable 
condition of the earth, the Creator determined to destroy 
the impious race and all their works by a Deluge of 
water. He confided his purpose to one righteous man 
a hundred and twenty years previous to its execution, 
and commanded him to construct an immense floating 
vessel, which, buoyed up on the coming flood, should 
preserve the men and animals destined to repopulate the 
earth. This distinguished man was Noah; his name is 
taken from an Aryan root Na, which, in all the words 
derived from that ancient stock, indicates something 
pertaining to water ; in the Greek, naein means to flow, 
7iana water, nachein to swim. Neptune, the sea god, 
Niord and Nichus in the Norse mean water spirits. A 
Phrygian legend places the great deluge in the reign of 
King Nanachns. 

The vessel he was to build, if we understand the 
specifications, was to be five hundred forty-seven feet in 
length, ninety-one feet wide and forty-seven feet high, 
three times the size of a British man-of-war. It 
was to be finished in three stories, with a door, and 
as we read in our version " a window," but that word 
does not occur in the original, the Hebrew word 
signifies " a transparency," or " translucency." Now 
the translators, who warped every word to conform 
to their preconceived ideas, and who thought of course 
the antediluvians knew nothing of the manufacture 
of glass, substituted the indefinite word " a window," 
though the original idea is that something was placed there 
which would admit the light, but exclude the water — glass 
or its equivalent. The word translated Ark is not the 
same as that used to designate the Ark of the covenant, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 73 

which is Aritn — it is the word Tebah, and probably means 
something "very unlike the awkward chest we see in 
pictures of the Deluge." This enormous vessel occupied 
more than a hundred years in construction, and must 
have exposed the builder to the incessant ridicule of the 
haughty people around him, who could see no use for 
such an unwieldy ship so far from navigable water. 

As the memorable event which followed, so cir- 
cumstantially described by the Bible, is one of the 
few in the world's history from which chronology dates, 
it will be interesting to review some of the traditions 
of the Deluge, reminiscences of which are found among 
all tribes except the black race. This exception is sig- 
nificant. 

The Greek tradition is one of the most detailed and 
beautiful. " The first age of the world was a Golden Age. 
After the fall of man came the Silver Age, when cold sea- 
sons, short days, and unfruitful grounds appeared. The 
Brazen Age succeeded, when men became savage of tem- 
per, and wars began. After this came the dreadful Iron 
Age, virtue left the world, and crime, dishonor, violence 
and rage filled the earth. At a council of the gods it was 
decided to destroy the inhabitants of the world. Jupiter 
was about to launch a thunderbolt upon the earth, but 
fearing so vast a conflagration might set the heavens on 
fire, he resolved to destroy it by water. He chained up 
the north wind, and let loose furious tempests upon the 
earth, the rain poured in torrents, Neptune heaved the 
land with an earthquake and dashed a mighty tidal wave 
over it. Then was everything living destroyed and all the 
works of man were swept away. One mountain-top, Parnas- 
sus, was left above the water, and there a pious man Deuca- 



74 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

lion and his wife Pyrrha, who had been floating on a raft, 
were grounded. The north wind was let loose, the storms 
were driven away, the sea retreated. Deucalion then ad- 
dressed Pyrrha, 'Oh, wife, only surviving woman, joined 
to me by marriage and still closer by the ties of a common 
danger, let us seek yonder temple and inquire the will of 
the gods.' They went to the dank slimy temple, and, 
prostrate on their faces, implored direction and guidance. 
The answer came confused as oracles always were : ' De- 
part with head veiled and garments unbound and cast 
behind you the bones of your mother/ Dismayed they 
sought the depths of the forest, to revolve the command 
of the oracle in their mind. 'We cannot/ said they* 
'profane the remains of our parent/ At length Deuca- 
lion spoke : ' I think I understand, the earth is our mother, 
the stones are her bones, these we can cast behind us.' 
They joyfully made the attempt, and the stones cast by 
Deucalion became men and those cast by Pyrrha became 
women." x 

The Lithuanians have a tradition that the god Pram- 
zimas finding the earth grown wicked, sent the giants 
Wandu and Wejas (wind and water) to destroy it. They 
overturned everything in their rage, only a few men saved 
themselves on a mountain. Pramzimas, who was eating 
a nut of heaven, let the shell fall on the mountain, the 
men crept into it, and the giants dared not touch it- 
After the flood subsided, they all went away but an old 
man and his wife, who were childless. Pramzimas sent a 
rainbow to give them hope, and told them to dance on the 
bones of the earth. This they did nine times, and nine 



i Bullfinch's Age of Fable. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 75 

couples being produced, from them sprung the nine Lith- 
uanian tribes." * 

An old Sanscrit poem runs thus : " To Manu (this 
word means the intelligent being ' Man ') they bring, in 
the morning, water to wash. As they bring it * * a fish 
comes into his hands. He spoke to Manu the words, 
< keep me, I shall preserve thee.' ' From what ? ' said Manu. 
The fish said : ' The flood will carry away all these crea- 
tures, I shall preserve thee from it/ ' How canst thou be 
kept ? ' said Manu. i First thou must keep me in a jar ; if 
I outgrow it, keep me in a hole thou must dig in the 
ground ; if I outgrow this, take me to the sea and I shall 
be saved from destruction.' He soon became a large fish. 
He said to Manu : ' When I am full grown, in the same year 
the flood will come. Build a ship then and worship me, 
and when the flood rises go into the ship ; I shall preserve 
thee ! ' Manu brought the fish to the sea. * * And in the 
year which he had pointed out, Manu had built the ship 
and worshipped the fish. When the flood had risen, he 
went into the ship. The fish came swimming to him, and 
Manu fastened a rope to the horn of the fish, who carried 
him by it over the northern mountain. The fish said : I 
have preserved thee, bind the ship to a tree * * * as the 
water will sink, thou wilt slide down. Manu slid down with 
the water, and this is called the slope of Manu on the 
northern side. Manu was then saved ; the flood had 
carried all the other creatures away. Then he offered 
sacrifices to be the model for all future generations. By 
this sacrifice he obtained a daughter who became super- 
naturally the mother of humanity." 2 

1 Dr. Kitto. 2 Max Muller. 



7 6 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

An ancient Parsee book states that the world having 
become corrupted by Ahriman, the evil one, it was thought 
necessary to bring over it a flood of waters that all 
impurity might be washed away. Accordingly the rain 
came down in drops as large as the head of a bull, until 
the earth was covered with water to the height of a man, 
and all the Kharfaters, creatures of the evil one, perished. 
The waters then gradually subsided and a new race was 
created. 

The Chaldean story is very similar to that of the 
Bible, even to the sending of birds out of the Ark ; it 
also mentions the wickedness of a giant race. 

" The North American Indians believe that the Great 
Father of their tribes lived toward the rising sun. Having 
been warned in a dream of a coming deluge, he constructed 
a raft on which he saved himself with his family and 
some animals. After floating for many months, the 
animals who had the power of speech murmured against 
him. At last a new earth appeared, and he stepped down 
upon it with the creatures, who thenceforth lost the 
power of speech as a punishment for their complaints 
against their preserver." 

Perhaps the most remarkable tradition is that found by 
the Spaniards in Mexico preserved in a written form. 
" The first Age of the World called Atonatiuh or Sun of 
the Water was terminated by a universal deluge. A man 
named Coxcox and his wife with their children and many 
animals and seeds were saved on a raft of cypress wood," 
(supposed to be identical with the gopher wood of the 
Bible). " When the Great Spirit Tezcatlicopa ordered the 
water to subside, Coxcox sent out a vulture which did 
not return, but remained to feed upon the dead bodies 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 77 

scattered on the earth. He then sent out a humming 
bird who returned holding a branch in its mouth with 
green leaves upon it." Whence came those wonderful 
Aztecs, with a written account of the Great Deluge so 
far from the scene of the disaster and the supposed 
centre of civilization ? 

" There was a story current among the Indians of 
Cholula, that the great Flood took place four thousand 
eight hundred years after the Creation. Before that 
event the world was inhabited by giants, and all who did 
not perish were transformed into fishes, except seven 
persons who were preserved in a cave." * 

Noah as the preserver of the human race has been 
deified under many names. The rites and symbols 
dedicated to Osiris, Bacchus, Saturn, Uranus, Deu- 
calion, Minos, Janus and the Scandinavian Bore, all 
indicate that the Patriarch Noah is the original char- 
acter. 

The most famous temple of Osiris was at Thebes in 
Egypt, which city was named from the temple. Theba 
is the word translated ark, and in this temple, as well as 
in all those dedicated to Osiris, there was placed a sacred 
shrine in form of a boat. The city of Apamana in 
Phrygia was formerly called Kibotos, The Ark, and a 
famous medal there evidently refers to the Deluge — 
the Greek letters Noe engraven upon it certifies the 
design. 

In this traditional review of our subject we find a 
gratifying confirmation of the Mosaic account of this 
most memorable cataclysm ; we will now investigate the 

1 Le Normant. 



78 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

subject in its material character, and this will involve two 
most interesting questions. First, was the Great Deluge 
universal ? did it encompass the entire globe with a 
depth of water sufficient to submerge the loftiest moun- 
tains ? And second, what was the character of the con- 
vulsion and how was it effected ? 

The answer to v>ur first inquiry has generally been 
in the affirmative, but modern science declares this 
to be impossible. Moses is, therefore, proclaimed to 
be an ignorant impostor. All the water connected 
with this sphere in earth and air, it is asserted, would 
not amount to such an incredible bulk. Now we must 
not limit the power of Deity ; He certainly might have 
accomplished such a result by some means inconceiva- 
ble to us, perhaps by driving the earth through some 
cosmite mass in a fluid state, but before we attempt to 
defend such an improbable supposition, let us examine 
the Mosiac record carefully, and we shall perceive that 
our Author does not intend to convey any such prepos- 
terous idea. 

We have formerly shown that the original Hebrew text 
is liable to misinterpretation, that the early annotators 
and translators tinged the historical scripture with their 
own ignorant ideas, so that many mistakes and errors 
have been promulgated, for which the authors of the orig- 
inal writings are not accountable. Our version reads : 
" The water prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all 
the high hills were covered, and all flesh died, all in 
whose nostrils was the breath of life of all that was in the 
dry land died." That seems conclusive, but the word 
here translated all «is the Hebrew word Kol, the same 
that is used in speaking of the famine in Egypt, " and 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 79 

the famine was over all the face of the earth, and all 
countries came to Egypt to buy corn." x 

It is stated that all the cattle of Egypt died of mur- 
rain, and afterward that the hail destroyed all that was in 
the field of man or beast, and every herb of the field, 
and every tree, and after this even, it is stated that " the 
locusts did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of 
the trees that the hail had left." 2 These passages are 
contradictory if we are to understand the word all as 
meaning the whole. Also we read : " This day will I put 
the dread of thee, and the fear of thee upon all the na- 
tions that are under the whole heaven." Nobody would 
pretend that the Aborigines of North America or the 
people of Great Britain or the Australians or Chinese 
went to Egypt to buy grain, or were in dread of the Jews- 
The truth is, the word Kol, which in these instances is 
translated all, does not always signify a totality ; it often 
just as clearly means, a great part or many as it does all 
Substitute either of these words, and the sense of the 
passage will be entirely altered : " Many of the high 
hills were covered, a great part of flesh died, a great part 
of those in whose nostrils is the breath of life." This 
last rendering, just as correct and truthful as the other 
obviates all scientific difficulty, and we may therefore 
safely adopt it. 

Our English text is another instance of the tendency 
to exaggeration in the early translators, "men who lived 
in a superstitious and unscientific age/' 

There is other conclusive though indirect proof in 
the Bible that the Deluge was not universal. It is inti- 

1 Gen. xii. 56, 57 ; Deut. ii. 25. 2 Ex. chaps, ix. x. and xii. 



80 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

mated very strongly that the excessive corruption of the 
Sethites, worshippers of Jehovah, was the sin which 
brought such a severe punishment. The descendants of 
Cain it is to be presumed were not included in this num- 
ber, for " Cain went out from the presence of the Lord." 
We read that some of his family were living and increas- 
ing, separated from the Sethites. 1 Why are they not 
mentioned as included in the destruction ? Our answer 
is, they were not guilty of the peculiar crime for which 
the greater part of the family of man were destroyed. 
It is a singular fact (before alluded to) that among the 
black races there is no tradition of the Deluge, though 
they have preserved a reminiscence of the Fall of Man. 
The mark set upon Cain may have been a black color, 
transmitted to his posterity like any peculiarity. 

Another expression confirms the theory of their ex- 
emption. In speaking of Jabal, son of Lamech, son of 
Cain, it is said, " He was the father of such as dwell in 
tents." The precise meaning in the Hebrew seems 
to imply those who now, at the present time, dwell in 
tents (i. e.) y when the author of the book of Genesis was 
writing. Of course if they were included in the diluvial 
destruction, none of the race would then have been 
in existence, as only Noah of the family of Seth was pre- 
served. 2 

One more expression places the matter beyond a 
doubt. In speaking of the sons of Japhet immediately 
after the Deluge, it is said of Gomer and Javan, " By 
these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their land. 3 
The word Gentiles means heathen nations. Who were 

1 Gen. iv. 2 Le Normant. 3 Gen. x. 5. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 81 

these heathens whose country the sons of Japhet took 
possession of? They certainly were not the family of 
Noah, for his children were not heathen ! It is perfectly 
plain, " all flesh " was not destroyed. Moses incident- 
ally mentions some who were excepted : he does not de- 
scribe the Deluge as universal, although it included that 
immense portion of the human family who had remained 
in the genial climate of " the homestead of nations." 

History places its seal of approval upon this theory. 
The ancient records of the tribes of Noah state, that 
when the family was broken up and dispersed by the 
confusion of language, the wanderers found people al- 
ready in the countries to which they emigrated. The 
oldest Zend writers describe these people as having black 
complexions and short, crisp hair. The earliest Sanscrit 
Vedas call the land where the Solar Aryans settled 
Hindustan, the land of the blacks, from the color of the 
natives, with whom they struggled successfully for su- 
premacy. And Egypt is spoken of as being " inhabited 
by impure beings." May not these be " the Gentiles " 
whose land the energetic sons of Japhet divided among 
themselves ? 

The large territory in which occurred the most terri- 
ble historical disaster was admirably adapted, by soil, 
climate, and water roads, to sustain a densely packed 
population. It extended westward from the terminus of 
the Himalaya Mountains, a vast fertile plain stretching 
across the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates to the 
Mediterranean Sea. Reaching to the sea on the north, 
the area was nearly as large as the continent of Europe, 
which at this day contains three hundred million souls ; 
a capacity which will convey some idea of the probable 

6 



82 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 

density of the population crowded upon that fertile por- 
tion of the earth's surface, soon to be the theatre of an 
awful exhibition of the power and wrath of offended 
Deity. 

Having shown that the Great Deluge was limited in 
extent, we will now consider our second important ques- 
tion : How was the Deluge effected ? and was it superna- 
tural in character ; that is, was it a miracle in the ordinary 
acceptation of the word, a violation of natural law, or was 
it the result of natural forces, directed by the Almighty 
Power in an unusual manner ? 

This question must be answered not by any wild theo- 
ries but according to strictly scientific principles. 

There is a law or principle in nature, by which the 
material universe is kept in order and harmony ; without it, 
stars would shoot madly from their spheres, planet would 
dash against planet ; there would indeed be a " wreck 
of matter and a crash of worlds." This principle drives 
the sun one hundred and fifty millions of miles every year 
towards a point in the northern heavens through the arc of 
a circle so vast, that twenty-four thousand years must pass 
before it completes one revolution, and one precession of 
the Equinoxes be finished. It is the same law which keeps 
the earth true to her governor, circling round him for ages, 
in a helicoid or screw spiral with inconceivable rapidity 
and dragging her satellite along. It causes an oscillation of 
the axis of the earth inconceivably small in space, incon- 
ceivably vast in time, so infinitesimaily graduated, so stea- 
dily performed that without tremor or variation it swings 
this vast globe backward and forward a few degrees only, 
once in twenty-four thousand years ! The other planets ob- 
serve the same law, Neptune and Uranus wading through 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. &3 

the depths of outer space with a whirl and rush that our 
dizzy brains cannot calculate. The same law controls the 
far-off stars and the immeasurably distant Nebulae, and 
yet so perfect is the conservation and correlation of force, 
so perfect the balance of gravitation, so inconceivably 
accurate the adjustment of this vast complicated mechan- 
ism, that the coming and retreat of these varied masses, 
their transit across each other's paths, their oppositions and 
conjunctions, can be calculated to a second, and with 
them, as with the mighty Being who controls them, " there 
is no shadow of turning." 

In such machinery, " wheels within wheels," the small- 
est details must be perfected. The same general law sus- 
pends the mist that hangs over the brow of the mountain, 
and directs the flutter of the autumn leaf as it rustles to 
the ground; it regulates the flight of the comet, the heart 
beat of the lordly man and the melancholy grating of the 
cricket's wing. 

All the material of the universe responds to this great 
law. When several planets or other masses of cosmic 
material are conjoined ; that is, when they are in direct 
line and unite their influence, the equilibrium of the 
universe is affected, by no means destroyed, and certain 
unusual events take place. The result of these combina- 
tions upon our own globe are those of which we can 
speak with the most certainty. 

The learned nations of antiquity believe that this world 
is periodically destroyed by deluges and conflagrations. 
The destruction by water takes place when all the planets 
conjoin in the constellation Capricorn, and that by fire, 
when the same event occurs in Cancer. Isaiah, Micah and 
St. Peter, in the Bible prophesy of a time, " when the 



84 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

heavens being on fire shall pass away with a great noise 
and all the elements shall melt with fervent heat." I am 
not aware that just such a belief prevails in this age, but 
it is known beyond a doubt, that unusual convulsions 
which disturb earth and air are positively connected with 
certain positions and conjunctions of the heavenly bodiec. 
For instance, when Jupiter, Venus and Mercury are in 
conjunction with the sun, as they are once in about 55 
years, they draw heavily upon the earth's atmosphere, the 
electrical equilibrium is unsettled, convulsions ensue, we 
have unusually severe earthquakes, tempests, auroral phen- 
omena, and uncommonly hot or cold seasons. When the 
moon in her rather eccentric circuit round the earth 
makes her nearest approach, the same disturbances take 
place and heavy rains and freshets prevail. The slightest 
variation may produce what seem to us tremendous 
results. These laws are becoming in some slight degree 
comprehended, and what little is known has already been 
of incalculable benefit to the civilized world. 

Now in that far distant time of which we have been 
speaking, the crust of the earth was thinner than it is at 
present, the cooling and hardening process was not so far 
advanced, the action of the internal fires was more vio- 
lent and extensive, the upheaval and sinking of the earth's 
crust during volcanic convulsion was consequently more 
extended and rapid, while attendant atmospheric disturb- 
ance was proportionally greater. With how slight a 
combination of cosmical forces could the Mighty Hand 
which controls the Universe produce, upon this insignifi- 
cant spot in the creation, the most terrific results ! A 
conjunction of planets provided for at the genesis by the 
All Knowing One, and coming into position at the hour 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 85 



of doom, would cause the ribs of earth to heave and 
sink like the deep-drawn sighing of a man in mortal 
pain. 

The Great Deluge, it is probable, was effected by such 
causes resulting in volcanic action ; the gradual sinking 
and subsequent upheaval of the earth's crust. 

The eminent geologist Hugh Miller clearly elucidated 
this theory in his last work, " The Testimony of the Rocks/' 
Sir Charles Lyell long ago demonstrated that lakes or 
seas by the sinking of th^ir barriers could flood the ad- 
joining country, and that the vast low district bordering 
on the Caspian and Black Seas might easily be submerged 
in this manner. 

" There is a remarkable portion of the globe beginning 
in Western Asia and stretching into Europe, nearly as 
large as the latter continent, whose great rivers, the Volga, 
the Ural, the Sihon, the Koor and the Amoor, do not fall 
into the sea or communicate with it. They are all, as it 
were, turned inward, losing themselves in the eastern 
part in the lakes of a rainless district and in the west fall- 
ing into seas such as the Caspian and Aral. In this 
region there are extensive districts still under the level of 
the ocean ! The shore of the Caspian is eighty-three feet 
beneath that of the Black Sea, and some of the great flat 
steppes have a mean level of about thirty feet beneath 
the Baltic. If the trench-like strip of country that com- 
municated between the Caspian Sea and the Gulf of Fin- 
land was to be depressed beneath the level of the latter 
sea, it would so open the fountains of the great deep as 
to lay under water an extensive and populous region. 
One of these depressed plains, known as the Low Steppe 
of the Caucasus, forms no inconsiderable portion of the 



86' FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

great recognized centre of the antediluvian race. Two 
great mountains, on one of which it is supposed the Ark 
rested, rise within it ; vast plains covered with salt and 
charged with sea shells show that the Caspian Sea was, 
at no remote period, vastly more extensive than at present. 
Now it is possible that this immense area, covered of old 
by a sea of the tertiary period, which we know united the 
Caspian with the sea of Aral, may have been again cover- 
ed for a brief period, by the breaking in of the great deep. 
Let us suppose that the hour of judgment having at length 
arrived, the land began gradually to sink, as a tract in the 
Run of Cutch sank in 1819, or as another tract in the 
southern part of North America went down in 1821. 
Let us suppose that the depression took place slowly for 
forty days, at the rate of four hundred feet per day, which 
would have been apparent only by the persistent inward 
flowing of the sea, and that from the same deep-seated 
cause, and the settling of the vapors into the depressed 
region, heavy drenching rains continued to descend dur- 
ing the whole time. The rain-fall would have contributed 
only five or six inches per day to the actual volume of water, 
but it would have added greatly to its horrors and gloom, 
by swelling the streams and torrents rushing downward 
from the hills." The sinking of such an immense portion 
of the earth's crust would of course push away the melted 
mass beneath, which would find room under the adjoining 
ocean beds. " This depression, extending to the Black Sea 
and Persian Gulf on the one hand, and to the Gulf of Finland 
and the Mediterranean Sea, would open by three separate 
channels the fountains of the great deep. Thus an area of 
two thousand miles square would, at the end of forty days, 
be sunk in the centre sixteen thousand feet, sufficient to 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 87 

bury the loftiest mountain in the district, and yet, having 
a gradual declension toward the outer edges, the contour of 
the hills and plains would remain the same apparently. 
The doomed inhabitants would only perceive the water 
rising slowly along the mountain sides and one refuge 
after another swept away, till the last witness of the scene 
had perished and the last hill-top had disappeared. When 
after one hundred and fifty days the depressed land had 
slowly risen, and the Ark had grounded on Ararat, all that 
could have been seen from that point would be simply a 
boundless sea, roughened by tides flowing outward by a 
reversed current toward the distant ocean. The foun- 
tains of the great deep would thus be stopped and the 
water would return from off the earth continually/ 

This theory, taken in connection with a clearer under- 
standing of the Hebrew text, solves every scientific diffi- 
culty. The area covered by water compared with the 
huge bulk of the earth, would be but as a dent made by 
the thumb upon the rind of an apple, easily filled by the 
waters rushing in tremendous volume over the ruptured 
barriers of the deep, but extensive and destructive enough 
to drown hundreds of millions of human beings. 

Alas ! how powerless, how defenseless is man, when 
God's agents, the forces of nature, are arrayed against 
him ! He boasts that he can make the elements the ser- 
vants of his will, he chains the lightning and it flies to do 
his errands ; he imprisons the fire and it toilsomely drags 
his burdens, or turns for him complicated machinery ; but 
if he inspire one breath of living flame, the strongest man 
is worthless as the cinder at his feet. He builds great 
stately ships that come and go at his bidding, defying the 
roar of the tempest and the fury of the waves, but let 



88 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

him drop for one moment beneath the surface of a quiet 
pool, and the minnow that starts in fear from the quick 
splash is stronger than he ! Oh, God, Thou alone art 
mighty, we bow before Thy awful power ! 

The men of the old world defied God, violated His 
laws, scorned the preaching of His faithful servant, neg- 
lected his warning, and they must now die ! Perhaps 
some of the more thoughtful are startled by the earnest- 
ness of the preparation around and in the enigmatical 
Ark. The strange docility of the animals puzzles them, 
the savage and gentle, by some unwonted impulse, go 
unresisting to their narrow quarters. The door of the 
Ark is shut, and for seven days of suspense an ominous 
and oppressive silence broods over all nature. What 
means this portentous calm ? Their spirits sink " as 
water sinks in wells before the earthquake shock.'' 

On the fatal eighth day, they perceive that water is 
rising round them. To their horror they discover that it 
is salt ! Whence comes it ? there is no sea near. Has 
the distant ocean burst its bounds ? Is it possible that the 
monomaniac Noah was right in his terrible predictions ? 
His words of fearful warning haunt their quickened 
sense, why had they not believed him ? They were filled 
with remorse and self-reproach, but there was little time 
for reflection. The dreadful present absorbed every 
feeling. What can cause this suffocating heat, this sti- 
fling air ? The heavens, which had been gathering black- 
ness, now began to pour forth a deluge of water, while 
the " water upon the earth increased and prevailed exceed- 
ingly.'' Whence came this awful rush ? How frightful 
the persistent roar ! 

They could no longer disregard it, speculation was 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 89 

at an end. Awake at last to the imminence of the danger, 
all order was abandoned and all feeling lost in the 
instinct of self-preservation. " Let us fly," they shriek, 
"to the mountains ! there, only, is safety ! " Famished 
and exhausted they climbed the highest hills, they would 
fly to the distant mountains, but they seemed strangely 
distorted and unfamiliar ; their sharply defined outlines 
were flattened, and oh, horror ! their tops pointed, not 
upward but inward, like a menacing frown ! In dismay 
they turned back, but the relentless flood enclosed them, 
the waters prevailed exceedingly, they swelled upward, 
till the earth was one unbounded ocean, in which the 
few hill tops looked like islands crowded with despairing 
wretches. Dead bodies, swollen and disfigured, floated 
past ; the terrors of Death overshadowed the pale despair- 
ing faces which were upturned to the pal] -like sky ! 

Was there no hope ? Where were their high-born 
fathers powerful to save ? Why came they not as in the 
days that were past, as the cry of despair went up from 
their beautiful wives ? 

In vain they waited, they knew not what we know 
now : " The angels who kept not their first estate, but left 
their habitation and went after strange flesh, hath God 
reserved in chains and darkness till the judgment of the 
Great Day/' 

" How art thou fallen, Lucifer, son of the morning ! " 

Forty days of doom rolled slowly away ; the confu- 
sion of flight, the frantic struggles for safety, the howling 
of the terrified animals, the shrieks of fear, the groans of 
death, lt the bubbling cry of some strong swimmer in his 
agony/' had all ceased. The last survivor in the apathy 
of despair had sunk into the wave. The tempest-tossed 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



sky was again serene, the tranquil moon looked down 
upon the rippling water, and the pale corpses floating, 
floating, far out upon a boundless solemn sea. 

"It slowly heaved with murmuring moan. 
The waters were calm and the sinners were gone." 

As the grand old Patriarch came forth from his five 
months imprisonment and his feet again pressed the bosom 
of a renovated earth from which old Ocean had washed 
away all stain of sin, the second Book of Earth's history 
was finished ! But before we lay the volumes aside upon 
the shelf of memory, let us briefly review our subject and 
sum up results. Our views of these far-off times must be 
changed despite the shock to our prejudices. We have 
found our chronology entirely faulty. The period be- 
tween the Creation and the Deluge was undoubtedly not 
sixteen hundred, but thousands of years. The earth was 
more densely populated than we have believed, some por- 
tions of the human race having wandered to remote parts 
of Europe, Africa and perhaps Eastern Asia. The arts 
and sciences had made great progress. Cities and manu- 
factories certainly existed in the earliest ages, that fact 
involves methods of locomotion, mechanical engines, com- 
merce, co-operative labor and social organization. The 
resources of these primitive men were great as our own, 
and there were hundreds of years in one life in which to 
develop them. 

Another startling fact has been revealed, the nature of 
the offence for which the world was destroyed. It was not 
the ordinary sin of mere mortals ; not only was the govern- 
ment of earth but of high heaven imperilled. Sin had 
entered the abode of angels. Unnatural marriages had 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE/ 91 

taken place on earth between celestial beings and mortal 
women, and the offspring of these strange unions, power- 
ful and depraved, had 'subverted the government of the 
world. This was the crime which demanded the excep- 
tional punishment. 

We have also seen that the great cataclysm was not 
universal, that the author of the book of Genesis does not 
intend to convey the idea that it was, and with pleasure 
we perceive the perfect harmony between science and 
the Scriptures. The nature of the Deluge, it is plain, was 
volcanic, and only supernatural in that the Almighty 
brought the awful forces of nature, obedient to his un- 
changing law, to exert an influence in an unusual manner, 
and by earthquake throes and atmospheric convulsions 
of unexampled magnitude, produced the most terrible and 
fatal catastrophe which has ever befallen the human 
race. 

The lessons conveyed by these investigations are 
many, but that which impresses us most deeply is the un- 
changing nature of law in the moral world. We all ad- 
mit the irresistible force of law in material things, 
mechanics, gravitation, attraction, repulsion, cohesion ; we 
expect no latitude, their uniformity is never doubted ; cer- 
tain causes produce uniform effects ; every motion we 
make, every breath we draw, every plan we form, depends 
for its success upon the fixedness of natural law ; we are 
sure no exceptions will be made in our favor. If we put 
our hand in the fire we expect it to burn ; if we drink 
poison we know we must suffer, no matter how inconve- 
nient it may be ; but in that invisible, intangible world of 
spirit, impenetrable by physical sense, of which w T e have 
only abstract consciousness, and which is governed by 



9 2 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

spiritual law, we imagine the conditions are different. 
Let us not deceive ourselves, our Deity is not a God of 
irresolution and uncertainty, but of eternal order, and his 
moral, as well as his material law is unswerving, inflexible. 
In the contemplation of the subject now before us, our 
attentive souls can catch the distant reverberations of that 
awful law, whose thunders rolled through the antediluvian 
ages, unchangeable, inexorable. " The soul that sinneth 
it shall die" No excuses or mitigating circumstances 
will divert the law from its course. Adam could plead 
the seduction of his wife, Cain might complain that " his 
punishment was greater than he could bear," the antedi- 
luvians might excuse themselves by their unfortunate 
birth for which they were not responsible, by a wrong 
education, by innocent thoughtlessness, by vicious exam- 
ple — it availed nothing; they did not repent, and the 
majesty of the law was vindicated by their destruction. 
That law has never been annulled, and we may well trem- 
ble with the consciousness of guilt. But through the 
sacrifice of Christ the penalty has been modified, there 
was for the sinners of old and there is for us, an Ark of 
salvation provided by God's mercy, a refuge to which we 
may all flee when another more dreadful catastrophe, an 
universal Deluge of fire, shall again sweep away every 
vestige of sin from this wicked world ! 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 93 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONFUSION OF TONGUES AND SEPARATION OF 
THE TRIBES. 

" Two changes from the original tongue would be fatal to social unity." 

WE must now bid a regretful farewell to the ante- 
diluvian world ; its wonderful civilization, cities 
and manufactories, the astonishing longevity of the men, 
the fatal beauty of the women, the incarnate celestials 
and their mighty sons, the magnificence and impiety of 
their rule, these all fade from our vision in the dim mys- 
terious ages, behind that black and hideous gulf whose 
resistless waters swept them away forever. 

Our attention will now be given to a subject very im- 
portant as a necessary link in the chain of investigation. 

With the loss of a common medium for the transmis- 
sion of ideas, diversities in religion were soon produced, 
the original truth revealed to Adam and his successors 
never having been entirely lost, but overgrown with error 
and superstition. Mankind ever feeling the necessity of 
some bond between the soul and God, clung to the slen- 
der thread of tradition, and, aided by the light of con- 
science, groped their way toward Him. 

In consequence of the confusion of tongues, and the 
dispersion of the tribes as a result, varieties in race also 
appeared. 

The events which led to these tremendous changes in 



94 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



the condition and destiny of mankind, are thus related in 
the Bible. " The whole earth was of one language and one 
speech, and as they journeyed from the East, they found 
a plain in the land of Shinar and dwelt there." And 
they said, " Let us build a city and a tower whose top 
may reach to heaven, and they had brick for stone and 
slime for mortar, and the Lord said, the people is one 
and they have all one language, this they begin to do, 
and now no thing will be restrained from them. Let us 
go down and confound their language that they may not 
understand each other's speech. So the Lord scattered 
them abroad from thence upon the face of the earth and 
they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of 
it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound 
their language and from thence did the Lord scatter them." 

The land of Shinar in Semitic language means, " the 
land of the two rivers," and without doubt was ancient 
Chaldea. The two great rivers, the peculiar ruins and the 
traditions, as well as the superabundant elay used there 
for brick, and bitumen, a convenient substitute for mortar, 
all point to that locality. 

The strange story evidently left in a very imperfect 
state in our text, a meagre outline of two very important 
events, is thus related by Berosus, an ancient Chaldean 
historian: "They say that the first inhabitants of the 
world, glorying in their own size and strength, and 
despising the gods, undertook to raise a tower whose top 
should reach to the sky, in the place where Babylon now 
stands ; but when it approached the heavens the winds 
assisted the gods and overthrew the work upon its con- 
trivers. Its ruins are said to be still at Babylon. And 
the gods introduced a diversity of tongues among men, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 95 

who till that time had all spoken one language, and a 
war arose between Chronos and Titan. The place in 
which they built the tower is now called Babylon on ac- 
count of the confusion of tongues, for confusion is called 
Babel by the Hebrews." 

The story of the war between Chronos and Titan is 
further detailed by an Armenian historian, Moses of 
Chorine : " Before the tower and the multiplication of 
tongues, after Zisthuthrus (Noah) had sailed to Armenia, 
Zervan, Titan and Japhetos were the lords of the earth. 
Scarcely had they divided the world among them when 
Zervan made himself lord over his two fellows. Titan 
and Japhetos opposed him and made war upon him, for 
Zervan wished his children to reign over them all. In 
the conflict, Titan acquired possession of part of the 
territory of Zervan, but their sister Astlik made peace 
between them." 

Japhetos is evidently Japhet. Zervan by another 
translation is found to be Shem, and Titan seems to 
be a Greek translation of Nimrod, or "the rebel," the 
originator of the Chaldean monarchy." * This name 
may signify, not a particular man, but the whole family 
of Ham, as is frequently the case in Eastern records. 

The location of Babel is identified by an inscrip- 
tion found a few years ago in the great Pyramid 
at Borsippa, made by order of King Nebuchadnezzar. 
It is translated thus: "The tower of the seven stages. 
The Eternal House. The Temple of the seven Lumina- 
ries of the Earth ** which the first king built without 
being able to finish the work. Men had abandoned it 

1 Anc. History of the East. 



96 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

since the Deluge, speaking their words in disorder. The 
earthquake and lightning had shaken the crude brick 
work and split the burnt brick of the revetment. ** The 
upper stories had crumbled down into mere piles. 
Merodach, my great lord, inclined my heart to repair the 
building, which in a fortunate month and an auspicious 
day I undertook." ** " This inscription points out to us 
among the ruins which lift their heads around the site 
of ancient Babylon, the still gigantic remains of a monu- 
ment which in the days of Nebuchadnezzar was believed 
to be the Tower of Babel. It is to this day called the 
Birs Nimrod and on the level plain looks like a mountain, 
a prodigious, shapeless mass of sun-dried bricks." 1 

The Hebrews from the extraordinary events which 
took place in the locality, and the analogy between the 
sense and the alliterative sound, gave to the word Babel 
the meaning of confusion, hence our word babble, but 
in the Assyrian, Babel signifies " the gate of the god" or 
" the serpent God." 

The conical shape of the tower is indicative of 
Turanian origin. 

The most common Assyrian name of the city was 
Borsippa signifying " the town of the dispersion of the 
tribes. "A symbol of the word Babylon, is discovered to 
mean the town of the root of languages." These names 
"seem like medals struck in commemoration of the 
extraordinary events which then took place." 2 

The name Peleg, — division, — was given to the "man 
in whose days the earth was divided." This division has 

1 Le Normant & Chevalier in Anc. His. of the East. 

2 Chevalier & Le Normant. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 97 

been supposed to refer to the appointment of the dif- 
ferent countries to the sons of Noah, but the verb from 
which the name is taken implies a mechanical, rather 
than a political division, ploughing or cutting the earth 
by means of canals. " For in his days the earth was cut 
by canals." The remains of this method of partition 
can still be seen in the low plains of Mesopotamia, 
" The land of the two rivers," literal, land-marks y very 
convenient where there was no stone for walls and 
where drainage was so much needed. Peleg probably 
was a great engineer who benefited the world by his 
practical genius. 

From the confusion of tongues and consequent dis- 
integration of the family of Noah, events which took 
place so long after the flood, that there was population 
and architectural skill sufficient to undertake the erection 
of the largest building of which we have any knowledge, 
came most of the varieties in the human race, though 
learned men incline to make some exceptions. The 
children of Cain and the later children of Adam and Seth, 
may have been the primogenitors of the negroes and 
other exceptional races. 

Ethnologists, who have studied the subject with 
unprejudiced minds, decide upon the unity of the human 
race. The causes which have produced such changes 
and varieties in one family, have been earnestly discussed. 
A solution of this interesting problem is found in the 
modifying influence of location, climate, food, education 
and intermarriage, upon the whole character and physique 
of man. 

In the delicious climate of Western Asia, the most 
perfect symmetry and beauty of form, and brilliance of 

7 



98 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

complexion have ever been found, and this beauty dis- 
appears and is gradually lost as the race retrograde from 
the early home of the human family. We know from 
history, that the swarthy, black-eyed Hindoo, descended 
from a fair Iranian stock, and that the marvellous change 
has been effected during the many thousand years which 
have passed since a branch of the noble family of Japhet 
were driven by some necessity, obscurely hinted at in 
their ancient writings, across the Himalayas to the 
sultry plains of Hindustan. Both sceptical and Chris- 
tian writers expatiate upon these modifying influences. 

Buckle, the learned deist # has beautifully illustrated 
the effect of a tropical climate upon man, in his description 
of the valley of the Amazon. " The trade wind blowing 
on the Eastern coast of South America, reaches the 
land surcharged with the vapors accumulated in its pro- 
gress across the Atlantic Ocean. These vapors on 
touching the shore, are periodically condensed into rain, 
and as their progress is checked by the gigantic Andes, 
they pour the whole of their moisture on Brazil, which 
is consequently often deluged by the most destructive 
torrents. 

" This abundant supply being aided by the vast river 
system peculiar to the Eastern part of America, and 
being also accompanied by heat, has stimulated the soil 
into an activity unknown in any other part of the 
world. 

" Brazil which is nearly as large as the whole of Europe, 
is covered with a vegetation of incredible profusion. So 
rank and luxuriant is the growth, that nature seems to 
riot in the very wantonness of power. A great part of 
this immense country is filled with a dense, tangled 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 99 

forest, whose noble trees, blossoming in unrivalled beauty, 
and exquisite with a thousand hues, throw out their 
produce in endless prodigality. On the summits 

are perched birds of gorgeous plumage which nestle 
in their dark and lofty recesses. Below, their base and 
trunks are crowded with brushwood, creeping plants, 
innumerable parasites, all swarming with life. There, 
too, are myriads of insects, reptiles of strange and 
singular form, serpents and lizards spotted with deadly 
beauty, all of which find means of existence in this vast 
workshop and repository of Nature. 

" And that nothing may be wanting to this land of 
marvels, the forests are skirted by enormous meadows, 
which, reeking with heat and moisture, supply nourish- 
ment to countless herds of wild cattle, while the adjoin- 
ing plains, rich in another form of life, are the abode of 
the subtle and ferocious animals, which prey upon each 
other, but which it might seem no human power could 
extirpate. 

" But amid all this pomp and splendor of nature, no 
place is left for man. He is reduced to insignificance by 
the majesty which surrounds him. The forces which 
oppose him are so formidable that he has never been 
able to make head against them. 

" The whole of Brazil, notwithstanding its apparent ad- 
vantages, has always remained uncivilized, its inhabitants, 
wandering savages, incompetent to resist the obstacles 
which the very bounty of nature has put in their way. 
The natives have never attempted to grapple with these 
difficulties, and they are so serious that during more than 
three hundred years, the resources of European knowl- 
edge have been vainly employed in endeavoring to get rid 



ioo FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

of them. The progress of agriculture has been stopped 
by impassable forests, the harvests are destroyed by in- 
numerable insects, the mountains are too high to scale, 
the rivers are too wide to bridge, everything keeps back 
the human mind and represses its rising ambition. The 
energies of nature hamper the spirit of man. Not one- 
fifteenth of the land is cultivated, and in a country where 
physical resources are most powerful, where the soil is 
watered by the noblest rivers, and studded by the finest 
harbors, this immense territory contains but six millions 
of inhabitants, while Europe, scarcely any larger, has two 
hundred and seventy-two millions of souls." 

This admirable description gives an idea, though an 
extreme one, of the repressing effect of tropical influence 
upon the human race. To these circumstances may be 
added devastations by hurricanes, tempests, and earth- 
quakes which incline the mind to superstition, render life 
and property precarious, discourage enterprise, and lead 
to that apathy which exclaims, " Let us eat and drink, 
for to-morrow we die." 

In the polar regions a similar effect is produced by 
excessive cold. Here also agriculture is impossible. 
Shut up within snow-huts half under ground the greater 
part of the year, bundled in furs till they are almost 
motionless, breathing the smoky air of oil lamps and 
fires supplied with the blubber of the seal, gorging the 
stomach with the gross fat of marine animals, men 
inevitably became and must remain dwarfed in body and 
intellect. 

The food required in cold climates must be highly 
carbonaceous to supply the extraordinary draft upon the 
vital heat of the system : in hot countries the oxygen 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 101 

contained in the fruits and grains is equally necessary. 
Thus even the nature of the food has an influence upon 
the physical and intellectual development of mankind, 
increasing the average of muscle or brain, and combining, 
with atmospheric causes, to change the complexion. 

11 It is in the Northern Temperate Zone, in that middle 
region happily removed from either extreme, where 
nature exhibits in her varying moods enough resistance 
to stimulate but not overpower the efforts of man, that 
we may expect, and do actually find, the highest type of 
humanity. " In the North Temperate Zone, because two- 
thirds of all the" land in the world is north of the equator, 
all continents point toward and dwindle to the south, 
so that the South Temperate Zone in America, Africa 
and Australia is insignificant in extent and area — Europe 
being altogether north of the Equator. The great 
civilizations of the earth have never originated in exces- 
sively hot or cold countries. The arts, sciences and 
philosophies had their birth in rainless countries, the 
valleys of the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, and on the 
borders of that wonderful inland sea, the Mediterranean. 
Here, in a climate which permits out-door life, the entire 
year, uninterrupted by rain, with a bountiful soil, con- 
tinually moistened by the tremendous evaporation of the 
sea, with great rivers, inland seas, and gulfs communica- 
ting with the ocean, man has made his greatest architec- 
tural, military and intellectual achievements. Here, 
where all the gifts of nature encourage the accumulation 
of wealth and incite intellectual activity, the arts, letters, 
poetry, oratory, painting, sculpture, and music, had their 
birth and mature development. 

But there are marked inequalities in the people of the 



102 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

favored North Temperate Zone. " The greatest physical 
perfection is found in Asia, the greatest moral and in- 
tellectual activity in Europe/' 1 while America, made up 
of elements contributed from both continents, has, as yet, 
hardly a distinctive character, but, by all natural law, it 
should produce the most perfect, well balanced race upon 
the face of the earth ; all the conditions are propitious ; 
it is between the proper parallels, bounded by two vast 
oceans, the eastern shore indented by safe harbors, into 
which empty navigable rivers, while its inland system of 
lakes is the grandest in the world. There is great 
variety of climate, and it is best supplied with rain of 
any. of the continents. Nature's endeavor is always to 
reproduce the best qualities, these are all given in the 
mixture of races here combined, and climate and soil 
favor the production of the necessary food for their 
ample sustenance. 

Another circumstance rarely considered in judging of 
the disparities in nations is the greater or less extent of 
sea-coast afforded by the configuration of the continents, 
facilitating to a greater or less degree navigation and 
commerce. The advantages of an extensive sea-line are 
greatly increased when navigable rivers, lakes and inland 
seas still further encourage intercourse and community 
of interest. 

Now, Africa has only one mile of coast to six hundred 
and twenty-three square miles of interior ; Asia has one 
mile of coast to four hundred and fifty-nine of inland, 
though greatly favored by gulfs and large rivers ; South 
America has one mile of sea-line to three hundred and 

1 Anc. History of the East. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 103 

seventy-six of interior ; North America has one mile 
for two hundred and twenty-eight of land surface ; and 
Europe, more favored than all, has one mile of sea-coast 
for one hundred and fifty-six square miles of land. We 
can readily see how such an advantage would stimulate 
traffic, enterprise and commerce in the change of com- 
modities, and, by acquaintance with other minds, enlarge 
the scope of ideas, quicken the intellect, increase the 
capacity of the brain, give animation to the countenance, 
improve and even alter the physiognomy. 

We have all seen the marvellous change produced in 
some dull, awkward country lad by a good education and 
intercourse with the refined society of a large city. The 
handsome, elegant gentleman is hardly to be recognized 
by his old acquaintances. How much greater would be 
the change produced during countless generations in a race 
constantly subjected to elevating or repressing influences. 

The tremendous effects of slight but persistent nat- 
ural influences may be seen in the remarkable disparity 
between the North and South Temperate Zones. In the 
Southern Zone no advance has been made in civilization, 
the natives have remained in a savage state, and even 
colonies of enterprising natives have deteriorated aston- 
ishingly in a few. hundred years. Witness the Dutch 
beoors of South Africa. It is supposed that the short- 
ness of the summer in that Zone, it being eight days less 
than in the Northern, the great preponderance of water 
over the land, as well as magnetic conditions im- 
perfectly understood, have contributed to, if they have 
not caused, this disparity. 1 

1 See Essay of Mr. Delafield, in Antiquities of America. 



104 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

Perhaps enough has been said to show the effect of 
natural causes in modifying the character and physique 
of the race. We must not overlook another important 
and powerful agency, — I refer to hereditary transmission, 
sometimes so vital as to defy all other influences, as in 
case of the Chinese and Jews. We will trace its control 
in the races descended from Noah. I suppose we have 
all grumbled at the hard uncouth names and tedious cat- 
alogue of forgotten and unimportant men contained in 
the ioth chapter of Genesis, but the folly of the com- 
plaint almost amounts to sacrilege. In a historical and 
ethnical point of view it is probably the most precious 
document in the world. It gives us in the names of the 
immediate descendants of the Patriarch Noah the fath- 
ers of all the tribes of the civilized world. By the new 
science of Comparative Philology a mine of information 
has been discovered in this invaluable record. The 
name of Ham, the second son of Noah, signifies the 
"sunburned." He was, no doubt, the darkest of the 
family in complexion, and his descendants have all been, 
like him, dark. His character, from the one act recorded 
of his life, was gross and deficient in delicacy, and this 
trait was also transmitted to his posterity, who, notwith- 
standing, have greatly excelled in the useful and mechan- 
ical arts. Energetic and enterprising, they were perhaps 
the first to push out from home and found great empires. 
Nimrod, " the rebel,'* founded the great Chaldean empire. 
The Hamites settled Phonecia, Ethiopia (now known 
as Arabia) and Egypt, though, in accordance with the 
prophecy of Noah, they were afterwards subjugated by 
their brothers, and have ever since been subordinate. 
The remnants of this race are known as the Nubians, 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 105 

Abyssinians, Tuaricks and the Fellahs of Egypt, the low- 
est and least beautiful of the white races. The depravity 
of their father Ham has ever clung to them, and their 
religion has been the worst form of Materialism. 

Almost simultaneously with the emigration of the 
Hamites, possibly even earlier, another large family left 
the common centre. They are classified sometimes as 
the Altaic family, because they came down from the Al- 
tai mountains, some-times as the Scythic, but most com- 
monly as the Turanians. The earliest Zend writings 
refer to a terrible and protracted religious war, between 
Iran and Turan, brothers of one family. The latter 
worshipped a great serpent, and attempted to force 
their foul religion upon the people they subjugated. 
The Iranians were of the family of Japhet, and, al- 
though the name of the father of the serpent worship- 
pers is uncertain, it is probable he was Magog, second 
son of Japhet, father of the Turan mentioned in the old 
Zend writings. From the last name came the appella- 
tions, Turyas, Turks, Turcomans, Turanians. 

This branch of the human family are spoken of in 
Scripture as Gog and Magog, in history as the Northern 
Hordes, the Scythians. They were a roving, warlike, 
terrible people, with peculiarities which isolated them 
from the rest of mankind. They overspread a great 
part of the habitable globe, carrying with them, strange- 
ly mixed, civilization and barbarism ; and wherever they 
went we find traces of the worship of the serpent, the 
subject we shall consider in the next chapter. The re- 
mains of this people are found in Northern Europe 
Ugro Finns or Ogres, while another branch in Southern 
Asia are denominated Dravidians. The Turks, Hunga- 



106 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

rians and Tartars are also included in this family. Re- 
cent developments render it almost certain that the abo- 
riginal Americans, Chinese and Japanese, and dwellers 
in the isles of the Pacific, must be added to this enormous 
family ; the Chinese alone number one-half the popula- 
tion of the globe. 

The descendants of Shem were the next to emigrate. 
They spread eastward from the Mediterranean, conquer- 
ing the Hamite and Turanian population. Asshur 
founded the Assyrian empire, which soon overshadowed 
the Chaldean empire of Nimrod, and was for ages the 
most powerful nation of the east. They were, however, 
the rulers only, the masses remaining as before. Nine- 
veh in its arts and civilization also remained like Baby- 
lon, Turanian and Hamite. From Shem, through Eber, 
came the Hebrews, from J ok tan, the most ancient 
Arabian tribes, who amalgamated with Ishmael, the 
eldest son of Abraham the Hebrew. From his second 
son Isaac came the Jews. Their dark glowing eyes and 
brown complexion are familiar to us all. 

The name Japhet rgeans " extension/' and the proph- 
ecy that God would enlarge his family has been remark- 
ably fulfilled. His sons, with the exception of Magog, 
were the last to emigrate. "By these,'' says our record, 
" were the isles of the heathen divided in their lands." 

This family has colonized the earth, navigated its 
oceans, forwarded its greatest enterpriser, and is now 
its dominant power. Beside the descendants of Magog 
the second son of Japhet before mentioned, from his 
eldest son Gomer, through Ashkenaz, was to spring the 
great Scandinavian or Gothic family of Central Europe, 
as formidable and warlike as their terrible brothers, 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 107 

Gog and Magog. From Ripath came the Celts and 
Gauls who settled on the Carpathian mountains, till a 
later impulse sent them to France and the British Isles. 
From Togarmah came the ArAenian tribes. Madai 
was the father of the Medes and Persians, of whom the 
Hindu Aryans are a branch — The children of Jubal 
dwelt in Colchis, the remnants still live in the Cauca- 
sian valley. Meshech settled in Phrygia, Tibarini, and 
Pontus, Tiras was the father of the Thracians, and Javan 
or Ioun of the Greek or Pelasgic tribes, who were for 
ages the lords of the earth, the Greeks and Romans, the 
most magnificent men the world has known since the 
flood ; they had the greatest perfection of form, beauty 
of feature, fairness of complexion, and size of brain. 

We of the Anglo-Saxon race are a mixture of Roman 
and Teutonic stock, all from the Aryan branch of Japhet. 

By this review, we perceive the causes which have 
operated to modify or change the types of humanity. 
Climate, location, food, the aspects of nature, commercial 
advantages, hereditary transmission and, perhaps quite 
as much as any of these causes, intermarriage, have pro- 
duced extreme varieties in one original family. 

But, it is argued, such changes are almost impercep- 
tible, the negro of Virginia to-day is nearly identical with 
his African forefather of two hundred years ago. Tens 
of thousands of years must have been required for such 
tremendous variations as now exist. This is certainly 
true, and is another proof of the inaccuracy of our 
chronological estimates. 

The negro races are probably of antediluvian origin. 
The nations of Egypt, China, Assyria, India and Arabia 
were founded, at the very latest, seven thousand years 



io8 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE, 



ago, long after the Deluge and Dispersion of the Tribes. 
We may safely calculate that eight thousand years have 
passed since the Great Flood ; and from the fact that, in 
the sculptured prehistoric ruins of Siam and India, are 
seen human figures of various representative types, as 
distinctly marked as at the present day, we shall be 
compelled to enlarge even this limit, and confess that we 
have been exceedingly narrow in our ideas of the an- 
tiquity of the earth and of man. 

We will now consider varieties in language, which it 
has been supposed were all simultaneously produced at 
the Tower of Babel. There are two rival theories with re- 
gard to the origin of langage : one is that Adam was from 
the outset endowed by the Creator with a complete 
vocabulary and perfect conversational powers, the other 
that he was as absolutely without words as any animal, 
and that language is a pure invention, the result of human 
needs. The truth in this case, as in many others, pro- 
bably lies in the mean. " Man is man only by virtue of 
his power of speech, but, in order to invent speech, he 
must first be man. Other animals may utter sounds as 
articulate and varied as the click of a Bushman, but voice 
alone does not enable them to speak. 1 " 

The Bible says, " God brought the animals to Adam, 
and, whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that 
was the name thereof." The most rational supposition 
is that the first man was created speechless as an 
infant, but with a mature ability to utter words at the 
instant an object or action required them. No doubt his 
vocabulary was very limited, confined to a few nouns and 

1 Humboldt. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 109 

verbs at first. What necessity had he for scientific tech- 
nicalities or philosophic abstractions ? 

During the long succeeding ages, the number of 
words must have greatly increased with advancing 
civilization, but, until the revolution of Babel, there was 
but one form. Whether that form was then lost or 
retained by some portion of the human family we cannot 
determine. 

It is extremely irrational to suppose that all the 
principal languages in the world were then produced. 
The historical growth, formation and decay of many 
languages now dead forbids so wild a theory — very 
probably no modern languages date so remotely. Lin- 
guistic science, founded upon the earliest traces of litera- 
ture extant — the Zend, Sanscrit, and rock and brick 
inscriptions — indicates that the original varieties were not 
more than three or four, and were confined to the great 
families. The cause and manner of the change cannot 
with our present light be determined. Intelligible speech 
is dependent upon two sets of organs, those of hearing 
and those of articulation. The totally deaf cannot speak, 
for the simple reason that they cannot hear. If our 
hearing were properly educated we could understand any 
language, and could probably speak any, although some 
tribes of men, from dissimilarity in the vocal organs, 
cannot intelligibly utter the language of their neighbors, 
a change of the ten-thousandth part of an inch in the 
structure of the auditory or vocal organs will produce 
the most astonishing results. We have all witnessed 
the effect of a deaf cold or an excessive hoarseness. 
Some forms of disease will so change the structure of 
the vocal organs that the speech of the person affected 



no FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 



will be unintelligible. I have never seen a suggestion 
as to the manner of the confusion of tongues at the 
building of Babel but such a change might very easily 
have been wrought by the prevalence of an epidemic 
which would affect the auditory nerves of one family, and 
the vocal organs of another portion, while a third might 
be left intact. The parties similarly affected would at 
once come to an understanding, finding others making 
the identical blunders they themselves were unable to 
avoid. 

Two variations from the original speech would be as 
fatal to social unity as twenty, and these would be sub- 
divided ad infinitum after the disintegration, by the 
same influence which produced varieties in tribes. 

Philologists have classified language under four heads. 
The Hamite, Semite, Turanian and Indo-European, the 
last two belonging to the family of Japhet. 

The close resemblance between the Hamite and 
Semite languages leads to the belief that they were 
originally the same. The language of ancient Assyria 
Babylon, Egypt and Phonicia, it has been supposed, was 
Hamite ; but the recent discoveries in the ruins of the 
Mesopotamian plains show that the cuniform and 
hieroglyphic inscriptions, though used by and in part the 
invention of the Hamites and Semites, during the ages 
of their dominition in these countries, were but the 
readaption of a writing whose origin more remote and 
obscure, must at present remain the object of conjecture. 

I hope in the next study, by means of the philological 
speculum to throw some light into the cavernous recesses 
of these dark ages, though the weak hand which holds 
the instrument may well tremble. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 1 1 1 

The last living remains of the language spoken by 
the family of Ham, are found among the Berbers and in 
the north and west of Africa. 

The Semite tongues proper, are the Hebrew, Arabic, 
Aramean used in Syria, the Sabean and perhaps a few 
others. The Arabic, is the only one now spoken. By 
Mahommedan conquest and the general introduction of 
the Koran in the subjugated countries, this language has 
been perpetuated, " This group possesses no power of 
growth or change/' it has lived, less than lasted. 1 

The Indo European languages of the family of 
Japhet, are like the nations who use them, the most 
perfect of their kind. The varieties, very numerous, are 
possessed of wonderful mechanism, elasticity and flexi- 
bility, and are capable of unlimited power and progress. 

The eldest of this family, is the ancient Sanscrit, for 
ages the sacred language in exclusive possession of the 
Brahmin Priests. It is said to be the richest, most 
flexible and sonorous in existence. Its name Sanscrita, 
implies "that which is of itself perfect ", it was called by 
those who used it " the language of the gods/' For 
thousands of years, it has been the repository of the 
science, philosophy and religions of Hindustan, and 
its recent acquisition by western scholars has opened a 
rich mine of information upon many obscure and interes- 
ting subjects. 

The next in age and importance of this family group 
is the Zend or Ancient Persian, that in which some of 
the rock inscriptions of Persia and the sacred books of 



I M. Renan. 



1 1 2 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

Zoroaster are written. Neither of these languages have 
been spoken for two thousand years. 

The Greco-Latin tongues are next in rank. The 
Latin bears marks of being the eldest. To this group 
belong all the ancient languages of Southern Europe. 
Their decomposition and mixture with the Teutonic 
tongues during the middle ages, gave rise to the modern 
Italian, Spanish, French, Portugese, Roumain and Ger- 
manic languages. 

The next in this extensive group, is the Slavonian, 
the language of the Russian church, which is gradually 
taking possession of that vast empire. 

There are two more branches from this prolific family, 
the Germanic, which is very extensive and rich in words, 
and the Celtic, much degenerated and gradually dying 
out in some of the French provinces, in Ireland and the 
Isle of Man. 

Our own language, which takes its name from the 
Scandinavian families, the Angles and Saxons, is a 
mixture of Germanic, Celtic and Southern European 
tongues. 

Another extensive and peculiar form of speech re- 
mains to be mentioned. It is used by the numerous 
tribes classified as Turanian. " Their early isolation 
from the rest of mankind and a strong tendency to 
permanence in character, has here preserved the most 
primitive form of speech ; being, even now, scarcely 
beyond the monosyllabic development. The vocaliza- 
tion of these languages is smooth and harmonious/' 1 

The Tartars, Finns, Mongols, Lapps, Turks, Magyars 

I Le Normant et Chevalier. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 113 

and some southern Asiatic tribes still speak this language, 
and I suppose we may also include the Japanese, Chinese, 
and perhaps the dialects of the North American Indians. 

The Negro dialects have never been satisfactorily 
classified. Their exceptional structure seems to confirm 
the theory that the black race never belonged to the 
family of Noah. 

I would gladly linger in this newly explored realm 
of science, where there is so great promise of rich 
acquisition to the store of human knowledge. I would 
fain trace the subtle but irrefragable chain of evidence by 
which these conclusions have been reached, but that 
would exceed the limit and object of this study. 

An illustration of the importance of this new science, 
where a primitive idea is often fossilized in words is 
given by Max Muller in his exposition of the origin of 
the word Deity. 

In the soul of man, the first idea of Deity is that of 
something mysterious, vast, unapproachable. The sky 
as the most imposing of natural objects, arrests the 
attention. Its profound depths, its varying color, the 
mysterious change from light to darkness, the majesty of 
the heavenly bodies passing calmly through its impene- 
trable depths, its life-giving warmth and rain, the fantastic 
shapes and colors of the floating or scurrying vapors, its 
swiftly changing mood from serene placidity to the 
scowling fury of the tempest, all these impress the simple 
understanding of the uneducated mind, and inspire 
wonder, awe, veneration. " Whenever I see the sun 
rise " said an aged woman in Finland ; "I make my bow 
and wish him good morning, and when he goes away, I 
bid him good night/' " There are people so ignorant," 

8 



1 14 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

she nai'vely added, "that they never do these things. 
They have no religion at all." 

From veneration there is but a step to adoration, and 
thus the heavens and heavenly bodies were exalted into 
deities. The first expression of God in the Sanscrit is 
Dyaus, the sky. The same word appears in other ton- 
gues. In Greek, Zeus; Latin, Deus ; Erse, Dhin ; Scan- 
dinavian, Tin ; Celt, Tin ; and Chinese, Tien ; Modern 
French, Dieu, and English, Deity. All these words 
mean the sky, but this word signifying a simple object 
in nature, did not long satisfy the worshipper and to give 
a personality, the ancients added the word father. Dy- 
auspiter, Deuspater, Zeuspater, "Jupiter, all meaning sky 
or Heavenly Father. 

As I read these statements, a light like a revelation 
flashes from the (model) prayer our Saviour left us. 
Jesus was a Jew, he spoke the Hebrew language. 
The proper word with which to address Deity in that 
tongue would be Jehovah, Aclonai or Eloi, Thou mighty 
One, that was the word which sprang to his lips in his 
mortal agony, but Christ was not a Jew except by the 
circumstance of his birth. He was the Saviour of the 
whole human race, he understood all languages and all 
hearts, and he knew that the largest portion of the 
human race then living or to be born afterward would 
think of God as the Sky Father. He knew that God was 
everywhere, not in the sky alone, but he yielded to the 
prejudice and began his prayer. " Our Father who art 
in heaven." 

The preliminary part of our study is finished. To 
obtain a just idea of Primitive Religion, and its off- 
shoots, wc were obliged to examine somewhat critically 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE 1 1 5 

the ancient writing which contains the most authentic 
story of the origin of the world and of Man. 

We will for the present lay aside the Bible and exam- 
ine the imperfect and distorted forms which the scatter- 
ed tribes of men from this period substituted for the 
original true idea, and which have been very improperly 
called, The Heathen Religions. 



CHAPTER V. 



PREFACE, 



TO most persons the subject of this article will be so 
strange and startling as almost to stagger credu- 
lity. The surprise of the reader, cannot surpass my 
own, when in a search for information respecting Devil 
Worship in the east, I stumbled upon unexpected and 
amazing facts which induce a belief that the worship of 
the Yezidis is but the fragment of a once universal adora- 
tion of the serpent. 

Works upon this subject are very few, and rarely to 
be found outside of the largest Public libraries. Of 
some of these only one hundred copies have been issued. 

I am under great obligation to Mr. Kernot of the 
publishing house of Scribner and Welford for very 
valuable suggestions and aid in this most interesting 
research. 

The facts, data, and theory herein contained have 
never before, I believe, been given to the public by any 
one writer in our language, though there are works in 
German and French as yet untranslated, of which having 
never seen a copy I cannot speak. I have gathered from 
the learned writers, before referred to, the separate links 
of a wonderful chain of evidence, which I have put 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 1 1 7 



together, I fear somewhat clumsily, and now submit to 
the public with much diffidence, but with the hope that 
thereby the attention of scholars may be aroused, that 
more profound research and investigation will be given 
to this unfamiliar subject and the truth be thus elicited, 
in which result, however it may affect this particular 
theory, no one will rejoice more sincerely than the 
writer of these pages. 

OPHIOLATRY THE WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT. 

Is the story of Eden a myth ? 

Preliminary to a review of the Natural Religions, we 
will carefully examine certain indications, amounting 
almost to proof positive, that there existed in the 
earliest ages of the world probably soon after the days 
of Eden, a horrible substitute for, or counterfeit of, the 
religion God had given to man, introduced by "that old 
serpent who is the Devil and Satan " which like a foul 
fungus, fastened itself upon the soul of man, blighted his 
nature, and' left him a prey to degradation and despair. 

The evidence which leads to this conclusion is four- 
fold : first that which is found in the religious ideas and 
practices of the stationary tribes of men, particularly 
the black race ; second the testimony of history and 
traditions ; third, corroboration from facts preserved by 
words in various languages and elicited by comparative 
philology : and fourth, religious ideas as discovered in 
architectural ruins and remains, relics of prehistoric times 
and people, traces of which have been found all over 
the surface of the habitable globe. 

In this profound research, we must penetrate into 



1 1 8 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



the dark recesses of the world's morning, even before 
the dawn of history. 

Of ancient Egypt, China, Persia, and India, even of 
the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon there is a story ;— we 
can calculate their era with some approximation to 
accuracy ; but who will reveal the history of the mighty 
monarchies which once existed in the Arabian peninsula 
or describe the grandeur of the stately cities, now but 
heaps of dust and ashes, low mounds upon the desolate 
and silent plain ! The earthquake shock, the devastating 
flood, the furious cyclone, the attrition of the earth cur- 
rents — agents of remorseless, all-devouring time — have 
destroyed every vestige of record ; not a rock inscription 
or a lettered brick remains to give a clue by which to 
penetrate the labyrinth of conjecture. The sun that now 
warms their embers, once gilded their pomp and bravery, 
the same moon looks placidly down upon the shapeless 
heaps, that once lighted their balconies and bowers, their 
palaces and temples ; the same breezes that wafted to their 
delighted senses " odors of Araby the blest," now sigh 
through the vacant gloom ; but these witnesses of their 
lives, tell us no story ; it is written alone in that " sealed 
book which no man in earth or in heaven is able to open 
and read." 

Whence originated the obsolete types of architecture 
found in the interior of Siam and Java, the subterranean 
cities of India with powdering sculpture, the huge mono- 
liths of the Pacific Isles, of Europe and Great Britain, no 
longer called Druidical ? Who worshipped the Persian 
Mithras in an artificial cave in Ireland where his emblems 
have been found ; or first lighted Baal's fire upon Nor- 
way's shore ? 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 1 19 



And when we turn to the New World, in vain we 
wonder who built the strange effigies of the North and 
reared the massive structures of Central America rivalling 
in grandeur the Eastern ruins, monuments which evidence 
a knowledge of every architectural rule, an acquaintance 
with sculpture, painting and astronomy, and from their 
close resemblance to works found in the Old World lead 
to a belief in a common origin ! " And how are we to 
determine whether the impression has been made from 
America to Asia or Asia to America ! Who can account 
for the utter extinction of those great nations which 
preceded the Toltec and Aztec ? Who can explain the 
tremendous deterioration which had assuredly taken 
place in the American races when the continent was 
newly discovered in our era ? ' n " Can it be conjectured 
that some extreme convulsion of nature, some earthquake 
rending asunder sea and land, such as is reported to have 
swallowed up the far-famed Island of Ataktnta, has 
swept away the inhabitants into its vortex? Not a ray 
of tradition, no war song or funeral lay, can be found to 
clear away the dark night in which the earlier ages of 
America are involved." 2 Nought remains but the awful 
silence of a dead though mighty past ! 

But although so little is known of the origin, history 
and government of the earliest nations of the earth both 
in the Eastern and Western continents, incredible as it 
may appear, we may obtain an insight, dim but certain, 
into their religious ideas. Antiquarians have devoted 
the best years of their lives to this investigation. Their 



1 Squier's Serpent Symbol. 

2 Von Martius. 



120 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

studies have not been vague and general, but, as by 
common consent, they have assumed different stand 
points ; some giving their attention to the science of 
language to detect in its roots and structure, a history of 
its origin ; others have devoted themselves to the science 
of race, throwing light upon this great subject by 
comparing the characteristics of the various representa- 
tive types of mankind. By others, the surface of the 
earth has been explored, each inquirer selecting his 
location or speciality, and all the remains and ruins of 
former ages, have been carefully scrutinized, to discover 
traces of past civilization, religion and art. 

Let us cautiously sum up the result of this research : — 
Its religious aspect is startling and leads to the 
overwhelming conviction that the oldest, most extensive 
and prevalent form of worship existing among the 
nations of antiquity was the adoration of the Sun and the 
Serpent ! 

FIRST TESTIMONY OF THE STATIONARY TRIBES. 

We will examine the evidence of this astounding 
discovery as it is found in the practices of the savage 
tribes. These degraded beings have remained station- 
ary during historic times, the African blacks being the 
most notable example. There is good reason to believe 
they are an antediluvian race, the descendants of Cain, 
inheriting the mark of their father's curse. 

But the condition of savagery is not confined to the 
negro race. In various parts of the world, mostly be- 
yond the extreme parallels of the North and South Tem- 
perate Zones, there are other tribes of men, who have 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 121 

remained absolute savages. To this class belong the 
Esquimaux and other North American Indians, the Para- 
guayans, Patagonians and Terra del Fuegans of South 
America, the Veddhas of Ceylon, the Dyacks of Borneo, 
the Hottentots of South Africa, the Australians and 
dwellers in the Pacific islands. 

Most of these savages are small, ill proportioned in 
stature, stupid and truculent in expression, ugly in feat- 
ure, with a dark complexion. Their intellects and moral 
perceptions are as stunted and imperfect as their bodies ; 
there seems to be in their constitution no element of 
progress, or capability of improvement They have no 
faculty or taste for agriculture, indeed, most of them are 
so unfavorably situated in climates of pinching cold or en- 
ervating heat, that cultivation of the soil is impossible. 
Their vocabulary is so limited, their language so gross 
and indecent, that missionaries are obliged to invent 
words to convey instruction. Many tribes have no name 
for God> or love, or virtue. Polygamy and polyandria are 
allowed. Marriage as we understand the institution, 
scarcely exists, and is not associated with love or tender- 
ness. Children, thought to be anything but blessings, 
particularly the females, are often killed for food. " Why 
should I starve," exclaimed an African savage, " while 
my sister has children to sell ? " A Polynesian, being 
reproved by an injudicious missionary, with great severi- 
ty for bigamy, in his anxiety to become a good christian 
cut the Gordian knot of his perplexities by killing one 
of his wives and eating her ! 

The lot of woman in this wretched state of society is 
deplorable in the extreme. Both men and women suffer 
from the rigor of custom, which often compels them to 



122 . FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

mutilate or torture the body. There are seldom any 
aged among them ; before a person becomes too old for 
active service, he proposes his own death, or it is forced 
upon him by his relatives, perhaps from a feeling that 
an infirm old age is undesirable for the man as well as 
for the tribe. 

Some tribes appear wanting in any idea of God, or 
moral law, or a future state. A Christian gentleman 
asked some Hottentots if they had a God. They an- 
swered, they had never heard of any. He then instruct- 
ed them that there was a Supreme Power who controlled 
the affairs of men. " If that is so," they responded^ 
"tell us where he is, that we may kill him! Who but 
he brings on the storm and flood that do us so much 
harm ?" Other tribes believe that a supernatural power 
resides in an object called a Fetish. This may be any un- 
usual object, which they chance to find, or an image 
grotesque and hideous, of their own manufacture. The 
spirit supposed to reside in the Fetish is evil and must 
be propitiated by offerings of food or drink, anything 
they themselves prize. 

This lowest form of idolatry is always accompanied 
by a belief in, and practice of magic, sorcery and su- 
perstition of such a dreadful character that it is no 
wonder death is sought and met with stolid indiffer- 
ence. Among these degraded and abject beings where 
there is no principle of progress, we may reasonably ex- 
pect to find religious ideas stationary, and worship prim- 
itive. 

We find actually nothing, deserving the name of 
religion, no bond between the soul and the Deity, but in 
its place a dark and terrible superstition, fetishism, sor- 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 123 

eery, and an almost universal reverence for, and wor- 
ship of, the Serpent ! * 

" Mahommedanism and Christianity influenced and 
altered the rest of mankind, but the savage races, par- 
ticularly the African blacks, still adhere to the old super- 
stitions and in their country where serpents are large 
and deadly, it is practised in its oldest form and to the 
fullest extent." The rites and ceremonies therewith 
connected may, without profanity, be called devilish. 

SECOND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 

History emphatically confirms the conclusions drawn 
from the practices of savage tribes, informing us that 
elemental worship was the underlying principle of all 
natural religion, even among the most enlightened na- 
tions. The sun as the most glorious object in nature, 
the productive and vivifying agent, has been worshipped 
by all the people of the earth in former ages. The sun 
was worshipped as Serapis or Ra by the Egyptians ; as 
ShamaSy Bel, Baal or Moloch by the Chaldeans and 
Phoenicians ; as Mithras among the Persians ; ^Suryas 
by the Hindoos ; Odin by the Scandinavians ; Apollo 
by the Greeks ; as Baiwe by the Laplanders, and as 
Tezcatlipoca by the Mexicans. In all cases he has a 
serpent symbol and was worshipped in that form. 

The idea of productive power or energy, of which 
the Sun was considered the source, degraded by the 
depravity of the human heart, has given rise to institu- 
tions and rites called Phallic, the most abominable and 



1 Deane-Serpent Worship. 



124 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

gross which have ever defiled the name of religion. 
The antiquity of Phallic worship is extreme, as will ap- 
pear when we consider Prehistoric Ruins. 

A singular and plausible theory connected with the 
May day Festival of England and Northern Europe 
also indicates the remote date of these rites. This an- 
cient festival is celebrated by the erection of a Phallus 
or pole entwined with garlands, around which the revel- 
ers perform a fantastic dance. This, it is believed, is 
but a reminiscence of a heathen Vernal Festival insti- 
tuted at the time when the sun was first in conjunction 
with the constellation Taurus (the bull being also an 
emblem of productive energy, and worshipped as such,) 
which event, by a calculation of the precession of equi- 
noxes, must have taken place six thousand years ago in 
the month of March, the date, according to our mistaken 
chronology, of the Creation. The wonderful ruin at 
Salisbury, England, named Stonehenge, hinged stones, 
was apparently a temple consecrated to the Sun Serpent, 
and there is no doubt, from the form and arrangement 
of the work and a remarkable coincidence which takes 
place at the moment of sunrise on the summer sol- 
stice that Phallic rites were once there performed at 
that hour. 

The garlands of the May pole represent the serpent, 
as do the stripes upon the barbers pole, formerly associa- 
ted with surgical practice. This serpent on a pole, was 
the insignia of ^Esculapius, god of health and medicine, 
kept in ancient temples or carried by travellers as a 
protection from sickness. 

The Jews also celebrated the Vernal Feast and " in 
Iceland the Vernal Equinox was called, ' the night of 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 125 

Baal's fire ! ' and fires were lighted on the high places 
dedicated to his service." 1 

Fire and Heat as manifestations of the sun, have shared 
with that body in divine honors. With their worship 
was connected the rite of " passing children through the 
fire," as a means of purification, our word purify being 
derived from the Greek Ptcr, fire. 

This custom is severely reprobated in the Bible. 2 It 
was not confined to the Baal worshippers of the East, 
for, according to Logan, the Highlanders walked through 
fire and carried it round their grain fields to propitiate 
Baal, the sungod. 

" The serpent was a symbol of the sun and its worship 
may be traced wherever there exists a monument of 
civilization or humanity." 3 

" It seems to have been nearly universal among the 
primitive nations of the earth." 4 

* Inasmuch as it was by the temptation of the serpent 
man fell, so it was the device of the Devil that by the 
adoration of the serpent, he should continue to fall." 3 
The belief in and fear of dragons, serpents and devils is 
interwoven with the whole circle of pagan idolatry. 6 

That this monstrous counterfeit of the worship of 
God, was substituted by the Evil One at the time our 
first parents fell before his temptation, appears probable 
from the fact that it is almost universally accompanied 
by divine homage given to trees ; there is unmistakably 
a connection between the two objects. 



1 O'Brien. 

2 Lev. xviii. 21. — Deut. xviii. 10. — 2 Kings xvi. 3. — Jer. xxxii. 35. 

3 Mr. Tod. 4 Mr. Squier. 5 Deane. 6 Upham. 



126 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

The serpent is always represented as the wisest of 
beasts, the source of knowledge, the giver of health, 
riches and prosperity, a dreadful enemy, and homage was 
rendered through fear and admiration. Does not this 
all point to the story of Eden and there find a solution of 
the mystery ? The tree of knowledge and the arrogant 
assertions of the subtle tempter ? " And the serpent 
said to the woman : Ye shall not surely die, for God 
doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall 
be opened and ye shall become as gods, knowing good 
and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was 
good for food ; that it was pleasant to the eye, and a 
tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the 
fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband 
with her, and he did eat." An old Persian tradition is, 
that our first parents sacrificed to the Devas and thus 
became Darvands and " for this, they shall burn in hell 
till the resurrection." 

Through the temptation of the Evil Spirit was Para- 
dise lost ! Is there not a new and revealing light thrown 
on the temptation of the second Adam ? " Again, the 
Devil taketh Him into an exceeding high mountain and 
sheweth Him the kingdoms of this world, and the glory 
of them and said unto Him, ' all these things will I give 
thee if thou wilt fall down and Worship me ! " Christ 
repelled the tempter and Paradise was regained! 

The physical peculiarities of the serpent seem well 
adapted to the purposes of the deceiver. Its remarkable 
locomotion, gliding like water or fire, unaided by feet or 
wings, its wonderful power of. changing its attitude, its 
intricate convolutions and contortions, its deadly em- 
brace, and the sudden death from its poison, the beauty 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 127 

of its color, and the fascination of its glittering eyes 
charming both man and animals, all seem to indicate 
supernatural power. 

Into this exceptional beast, so well calculated U 
attract the attention and excite the fear of man, the arch 
enemy entered, to the ruin and degradation of the race, 
and in this form he has for ages received the homage 
due to Almighty God alone. 

If, as we have supposed, Ophiolatry was of antedilu- 
vian origin and was practised by that abominable race 
for whose unnatural crime the Deluge was sent, the 
knowledge of it would be preserved 'in the family of 
Noah — a supposition warranted by an Oriental tradition 
which will be mentioned later. History and tradition 
attest the great age and extensive practice of this hid- 
eous idolatry. The family of Magog and the sons of 
Ham were the first to emigrate after the disaster at the 
tower of Babel. The Turanian branch of Magog was 
certainly the first white race which overran India, and 
we shall later see reason to believe they preceded their 
nobler brothers, the Aryans in Europe and America. 
The oldest Hindoo traditions speak of a race of serpent 
monarchs from whose shoulders grew the heads of snakes 
and who were the sons of serpent fathers. We catch 
occasional glimpses of these traditional monsters rear- 
ing their crested heads in that obscure period where the 
mists of mythology begin to retire before the dawn of 
history. They were called Naga Rajahs, serpent lords, 
and ruled throughout Southern Asia. Seeva, the Hindoo 
Destroyer, is depicted at this day, as one of these ser- 
pent monarchs. We read also of a cruel usurper who 
conquered ancient Iran, from whose shoulders grew two 



128 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

voracious serpents, whose hunger would only be ap- 
peased with the brains of human victims. Therewith is 
connected the beautiful story of the blacksmith of Is- 
pahan. The name of this despot marks his character. 
Zohak, the last syllable of which, hak, means a snake. 
These cruel tyrants kept living serpents in tanks and 
lakes, and fed them with human flesh. 

The Naga Rajahs were undoubtedly all Turanian 
kings who have at some period of the world's history 
held universal sway. The Assyrians, Persians, Parthians, 
Scythians, Chinese, Saxons and Danes, bore the form of 
a dragon on their military standards. In China the 
dragon is the national emblem, used in the decoration 
of temples and the royal robes, a very old Chinese book 
represents a god with the lower extremities like a serpent 
and serpent heads issuing from his shoulders. The his- 
torian Justin states that Turanian domination in Asia 
lasted fifteen hundred years, during which time a per- 
petually renewed religious war was in progress. The 
Spirit of Evil was worshipped in the form of a great 
serpent called Ferusharabha or Afrasiab. 

The Hamites, who founded kingdoms in Chaldea, 
Assyria, Phoenicia and Egypt, practised the same abom- 
ination ; they seem always to have been in sym- 
pathy with the Turanians. Asia Minor was so given to 
this idolatry that its symbol, often found on ancient 
coins is a female figure holding a serpent. The same 
was true of Syria and Phoenicia. 

The Israelites for five hundred years worshipped the 
brazen serpent which Moses set up in the wilderness. 
At that time king Hezekiah " removed the high places, 
cut down the groves and brake in pieces the brazen 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE, 129 

image Moses had set up, for unto those days the chil- 
dren of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it 
Nehustan," 1 a thing of copper. 

" Between the porch and the altar were about five and 
twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the 
Lord, and their faces to the east, and they worshipped 
the sun." 2 

We also read, " I will visit upon her, (the Jewish 
church) the days of Baalim, (the sun deities,) wherein she 
burned incense to them." 

In the days of Elisha only " seven thousand were 
left in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal." 3 

It may not be inappropriate to discuss briefly in this 
connection, the almost inexplicable inconsistency that 
Moses, by divine command, should set up a bronze ser- 
pent as the means of recovery from the fatal bite of the 
serpents in the wilderness. Infidels assert that Moses, 
upon this memorable occasion, pandered to the idola- 
trous cravings of the Israelites and adopted the y£scu- 
lapian emblem of the pagans : a superficial view of the 
subject would justify such a conclusion, I may therefore 
be pardoned if I offer a possible explanation, as it has 
occured to my mind. 

There are mentioned in the Bible incidentally, and 
without explanation, certain mysterious beings or princi- 
ples, the immediate ministers of the divine will, and 
expressions of His glory, under the name of cherubim 
and seraphim. They were known to Adam for it is 
stated " that cherubim and a flaming sword " 4 guarded 
the approach to the vacated Paradise. In Psalms, in 

1 2d Kings viii.4. 2 Eze. viii.16. 3 Hoseaii.13. 4 Gen. iii. 

9 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 



speaking of the majesty of God it is said u He rode upon 
a cherub and did fly. He rode upon the wings of the 
wind " and again, Who maketh His angels spirits, flam- 
ing fire His ministers," (revised translation), Ezekiel de- 
scribes minutely a glorious and wonderful appearance 
under the throne of God which he calls Cherubim^, and 
St. John in vision sees the same resplendent forms. 2 

These cherubim whose grandeur and majesty over- 
awed the beholders may have been celestial beings, per- 
sonal like the angels, more exalted and awful, or they 
may have been symbols, fourfold, of the elements, earth, 
air, fire and water, all of which are mentioned ; or per- 
haps they were impersonations of natural forces or laws — 
electricity, gravitation, cohesion, dynamics. The whirl- 
wind, cloud and fire, the elemental agitation, the rush 
and whirl, the roaring sound, the electric light and color, 
the dreadful wings and eyes, the wheels within wheels, 
the immensity of the terrible crystal firmament or atmos- 
phere, the unvarying rapid motion going and return- 
ing, the absence of any volition of their own, the whole 
being impelled by the spirit's will, all favor the last sup- 
position. 

These incomprehensible persons or impersonations, 
were undoubtedly in one form, known as winged oxen. 
Ezekiel and St. John both speak of one of the cherubim as 
having the face of an ox or the face of a calf, and the 
same word Carab is from a radical .which means to 
plough, and is used to designate oxen, ordinary cattle. 

Now in the ancient Eastern pantheon are found winged 
oxen and bulls, winged lions, eagle-headed men, and other 



1 Eze. ist and ioth. 2 Rev. iv.7. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 131 

unnatural monstrosities, griffins and sphinxes, which 
were made the objects of religious worship. These are 
all, no doubt, heathen perversions of a primitive belief in 
actual existences, agents of nature, demi-urges — a belief 
founded upon tradition, or original revelation, as they 
were certainly known to our first parents. 

The seraphim were beings of a similar order and 
office with the cherubim, though we may suppose they 
were more exalted from their position above the throne. 1 
They attend the majesty of the Deity, they have wings 
and hands, and voices so terrible that the posts of the 
temple shake at the sound. Their antiphonal anthem of 
praise is like that of the cherubim: — " Holy, holy, holy 
is the Lord God of hosts." — Fire and smoke, also, ac- 
company them, and terror seized the Prophet Isaiah, as it 
did Ezekiel when he beheld the vision of the cherubim. 

But the form of the seraph was not the same, — there 
is good reason to believe that it was a winged serpent. 
The word seraph comes from a root which conveys the 
idea of something burning or exalted ; it may have either 
or both meanings. 

It is used in several instances to signify a snake? and 
Isaiah himself uses it unmistakably in that sense. " The 
viper and fiery flying serpent " 3 saraph. " Out of the 
serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his 
fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent " 4 saraph. The office 
of the seraph in Isaiah's vision seems to have been that 
of a minister of purification and cleansing, for when the 
Prophet cries out, terrified with the majesty of perfect 
holiness : " Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am 

1 Is. vi. 2 Num. xxi.8. Deut. viii.15. 3 Is. xxx.6. 4 Is. xiv.29. 



132 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



a man of unclean lips," one of the seraphim takes from 
the altar a live coal, and laying it upon the mouth of the 
sin-stricken man, says, " Lo ! this hath touched thy lips 
and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged." 

From these indications we may infer that Moses 
set up, in the camp of afflicted Israel, not the ^Escula- 
pian symbol of heathendom, but the representation of a 
being or principle, which was the providential, cleansing 
healing or medicinal agent of nature ; that, either from 
primitive tradition or direct revelation, he so understood 
the divine command and instructed his people according- 
ly, to stimulate an exercise of hope and faith necessary for 
their recovery. 

The seraphic form may have embodied a personality, 
and the primeval pair, with preternatural insight may 
have been familiar with God's * ministers of flaming 
fire/ the seraphim and cherubim. Satan perhaps more 
readily gained the ear of Eve because he took the ser- 
pent's body, thus ■ ■ transforming himself into an angel of 
light" l a bright- winged seraph ; and in succeeding ages, 
the great deceiver and counterfeiter perverted the 
cherubic hosts into the winged idols of Assyria and 
Egypt, and his own assumed mask into the emblem of 
health and prosperity. 

A cock was the usual sacrifice to the god of healing. 
Socrates, the great philosopher and greater moralist, was 
not above the superstitious influence of his age, for his 
last request to his disciples was, that the cock he had 
promised as a sacrifice to ^Esculapius might not be for- 
gotten. Upham describes a similar ceremony at the 



1 2 Cor. ii. 14. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 133 



death of a native Ceylonese. In the interior of the 
island, a traveller surprised a priest of the devil, in a dark 
forest, at midnight, sacrificing a black cock at the death- 
bed, with hellish sounds and awful mysteries. 

The caduceus of Mercury, the god of cunning, thieves 
and liars, was a Phallic and Ophite emblem : a pole, two 
serpents and wings. The serpent Wand or staff is often 
seen in the hands of apotheosized Egyptian kings. Liv- 
ing serpents were kept in the temples of Minerva, the 
goddess of wisdom ; and the deadly malignity of the 
serpent deity was represented in the head of Medusa 
with snaky locks, whose very glance turned the beholder 
into stone. Serpents of great size were worshipped in 
Greece and Italy ; and v/hen the apostle Philip con- 
verted the Phrygians, a living serpent received divine 
honors. 

It is supposed that the fable of the banishing of 
snakes from Ireland by St. Patrick refers to the conver- 
sion of the serpent-worshipping inhabitants. That of 
St. George and the Dragon may admit of the same inter- 
pretation. Christ, in giving His last instructions to the 
Apostles, says : " Go ye into all the world, preach the 
gospel to every creature. In my name they shall cast 
out devils, they shall speak with tongues, they shall take 
tip serpentsT And of the Messiah it is said, " Thou shalt 
tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and dragon 
shalt thou trample under thy feet." " The seventy re- 
turned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject 
to thy name." 

Turning from the Old World to the New, we find the 
same idea preserved in the history and traditions of 
America. Among nearly all the aboriginal Indians, ser- 



134 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



pent worship, sorcery and incantations were practised, 
accompanied, as usual, with terrible cruelty, superstition, 
and degradation. 

The god of the Aztecs was represented as a great 
snake with feathers on his head. One of his names sig- 
nifies smoke, or obscurity. "When he descended upon 
the sacred mount, water and fire flowed from beneath his 
feet," reminding us of a passage in our Bible : "Before 
him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth 
from his feet — hailstones and coals of fire/' 

The god of the Toltecs was also a serpent deity. 

The Spaniards reported that, before the conquest of 
Peru, " The people of that country worshipped a mon - 
strous serpent, twenty-seven feet long, with a very thick 
body covered with scales, and small but fierce eyes, ter- 
rible to behold, no doubt the jiboya of Brazil." 

" The snake was a conspicuous object in Mexican 
mythology. It was carved in various shapes and sizes. 
In one temple the stones of which the walls were built 
were cut like snakes tied together, and was dedicated to 
all the gods, but called the ' Serpent's Place' 1 One 
stone carved head was found in Mexico, twelve feet 
long." 

The live snakes bred in cages strown with feathers, 
in the precincts of the Mexican temples, and described 
by the Spaniards as " horrible creatures, with something 
like morris bells at their tails," were the deadly rattle- 
snakes, considered sacred in America, as were the 
venemous asp and cobra in Egypt and India. 

Among many ancient nations a belief was prevalent 



1 Du Paix. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 135 

that an enormous serpent girdled the universe, or 
stretched through the sun's path. When an eclipse 
occurred, it was supposed this monster was about to 
swallow the sun. Hideous noises were resorted to, with 
the hope of frightening him, and sometimes sacrifices 
were offered to divert him from his purpose. 

Perhaps the most repulsive form which this accursed 
idolatry has ever assumed, one in which Satan trans- 
formed himself into an angel of light, was the abomin- 
able blasphemy of self-styled Christian sects, the Nico- 
laitans, Gnostics and Syrian Ophites. They taught 
that the Ruler of the Universe was in the form of a 
dragon, that the serpent of Paradise was the author of 
man's knowledge, and that to him was to be attributed 
all wisdom. Manes of Persia taught that Christ was an 
incarnation of the great serpent, and certain Egyptians 
call their serpent god Cnuphis, Jesus Christ. 

" These sects kept a serpent in a chest ; From this 
covert they enticed him upon a table, with a piece of 
bread. When he had folded himself around the bread 
they broke it in pieces and ate it and all who wished, 
kissed the serpent ! They then sang a hymn through 
the snake to the Supreme Father, calling this the 
Holy Eucharist — a perfect sacrifice ! ! " * 

This ceremony was a literal repetition of a Bacchan- 
alian rite, except that, in the latter case, the votaries 
sang the concluding song to Python. 

These blasphemous sects are referred to by St. John, 
speaking in the name of Christ, to the churches of 
Ephesus and Pergamos, " so hast thou also them which 

1 Deane. 



136 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I 
bate," * 

"This abomination lasted till the seventh century, 
when Mahommedanism swept away a mass of parasites 
which had fastened themselves on Christianity/' 2 

Serpent worship was accompanied by that most 
terrible form of propitiation, human sacrifice. Wresting 
the truth to serve his lying purpose, the Evil One has 
always made it appear "that it is blood that maketh 
atonement for the soul," that "it is expedient that one 
man should die, lest the whole nation perish." If the 
death of one man did not suffice to bring prosperity or 
avert calamity the number was increased till sometimes 
hundreds and even thousands of poor wretches were 
compelled to yield up their lives, under circumstances of 
deliberate atrocity, too horrifying and disgusting to be 
described. 

Human sacrifice to Obel or Baal the sun serpent, 
god of fortune, is frequently mentioned in the Hebrew 
scriptures. Balaam says to Balak, king of Moab, — 
" Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the 
fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? " 3 The 
church of Pergamos practised the rites of Balak. 

"They sacrificed to devils not to God." 4 

" Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters 
unto devils." 5 

Mr. Prescott in the History of Mexico states that 
the yearly sacrifice of human beings among the Aztecs, 
was estimated from twenty to fifty thousand. At 



1 Rev. ii. 6-15. 2 Deane. 3 Mic. vi. 7. 

4 Deut. xxxii. 17. 5 Ps. cvi. 37. — Rev. ii. 14. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 13 7 

the dedication of one temple seventy thousand per- 
ished at this infernal shrine, many hundreds of priests 
being employed for days in the slaughter. The Span- 
iards counted one hundred and thirty-six thousand 
human skulls, preserved in a building erected for the 
purpose. 

At the grand annual sacrifice, a beautiful youth, who 
was for the previous twelve months in preparation for 
the event, being perfected in health and beauty and 
surrounded by all sensual delights, was led to the high 
altar, bound upon it, and the priest, having cut open his 
breast, tore from it the palpitating heart and held it, yet 
smoking, up toward the sun in heaven. 

Cannibal feasts were prepared from the bodies of 
the victims, and lent additional horror to these atrocities, 
and, incredible as it may appear, high-born ladies par- 
ticipated in the loathsome banquet. 

The Spaniards were also witnesses to a still more 
dreadful rite, where infants were bled to death, and the 
blood of these innocents, mixed with meal or earth, was 
eaten by the assembled company ! 

During the construction of some public works near 
Cincinnati, a sacrificial mound about twenty-five feet 
wide was cut through, and, amid marks of intense heat, 
were found remains of infant skeletons, showing that 
there had been perpetrated the most diabolical of Ophite 
ceremonies. 

To what incredible degradation must the soul of man 
be plunged, when such inhumanity could be tolerated ! 
We sicken when we fancy the social condition thus indi- 
cated ! 

At the Smithsonian Institute at Washington there is 



138 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

a large mass of copper ore, oval in form, about five feet 
longest diameter, which was found in the region of Lake 
Superior. Indian tradition declares that it was used as 
an altar for human sacrifice. A little above the center 
is a place smoothed to receive the shoulders of the vic- 
tim, and higher still, on one side, is a deep hollow, in 
size and shape like a quart bowl, the design of which is 
but too mournfully apparent ; there are no marks of 
use — the pitying elements have washed away all stain. 

The seed of the woman will at last "■ bruise the head 
of the serpent," but it yet retains vitality. Ophiolatry 
still exists in Northern India, in Cashmere, and Nepaul, 
near the site of the Garden, where, no doubt, it had its 
monstrous birth. It also lingers in Egypt. There, live 
serpents still receive human victims, and sickness is be- 
lieved to be cured by a serpent, which is taken to the 
bedside of the patient, coiled around the neck of a beau- 
tiful girl. It is found among all the African tribes, but 
upon the coast of Guinea it retains its most revolting 
features. Navigators who visit the western coast unite 
in testifying that ancestral worship and human sacrifice 
are the leading characteristics of the religion of Da- 
homey, and are practised to a frightful extent. 

The Triad of this people consists of the earthly and 
the heavenly serpent, the cotton and the poison trees, 
(consulted in sickness) and Hu or the ocean. This name 
is probably the same as Hea of the Assyrians, and is 
certainly like the Hu of the ancient Britons, both ser- 
pent deities. 

The earthly serpent, who has a thousand serpent 
wives, is worshipped with imposing ceremonies, and is 
the recipient of many gifts. His priestesses are young 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 139 

girls trained for that purpose like the nautch girls of 
India. This deity returns answers to his worshippers 
by his children, the beautiful snakes of the western 
coast. He is supposed to be still on earth, enshrouded 
in mystery. 

The heavenly serpent is the rainbow, whose image, a 
horned snake, is preserved in a jar. 

The worship of Hu is very expensive and cruel. 
The high priest, who attains to the dignity of five hun- 
dred wives, appropriates the costly offerings, and it were 
well if the sacrifice ended in that way, but frequently a 
man must be taken into the sea and thrown to the rav- 
enous sharks which infest the coast. When information 
is required from the spirit world, some poor wretch is 
hurried thither with the message. When a caboocer of 
Ashantee dies, a female slave is butchered at the grave 
under circumstances of heart-rending cruelty. 

Wholesale murder attends the death of the king of 
Dahomey. His wives, servants and animals must attend 
him upon his last journey. After the death of the last 
of these kings, a few years since, enough poor victims 
were slaughtered to float a boat in the blood ! 

And yet nearer home, in this nineteenth century of 
Christian grace, in our own enlightened United States, 
the serpent still weaves his deadly folds and fastens his 
cruel poison fangs. Credible witnesses state that among 
the negroes of the South, Voudhooism or Obi worship is 
still secretly practised. Few whites have witnessed the 
rites, for being obscene and foul, they are performed 
in great privacy. Snakes and nude human beings figure 
in the vile ceremonies, and the civil authorities, always 
upon the lookout, interfere at a moment's warning. 



140 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

The priests of the devil, while sometimes admitting 
that there is much trickery and fraud in their practice, 
declare that they are conscious of a powerful outside 
influence, which they can neither describe nor explain, 
but which, if they are converted, they regard with 
horror and loathing ; some investigators believe this to 
be — in reality, diabolism — certainly the phenomena con- 
nected therewith is, at present, inexplicable. 

THIRD. PHILOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. 

Having reviewed, though by no means exhaustively, 
the records of history in support of our theory, we will 
now introduce the testimony of language, evidence of 
the highest importance, for, like the precious papyrus 
rolls inhumed in Egyptian tombs, in the slight but 
tenacious envelope of letters, important historical facts 
have been preserved without decay or deterioration for 
thousands of years. The hand of comparative philology 
has skilfully separated the hardened husk from the 
kernel and offered for our enlightenment and instruction, 
the latent but still vital germs of thought, which, under 
the genial influence of scientific culture, have blossomed 
and borne golden apples of historical knowledge. 

And here allow me to crave the patient tolerance of 
linguistic critics. If my interpretation of words seems 
far-fetched and fanciful, contrary to the exegesis of 
commentaries and lexicons, please to remember that 
discoveries in the East, during the last few years, the 
interpretation of rock and brick inscriptions, the deci- 
phering of cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing, and the 
acquisition of the Zend and Sanscrit, have changed the 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 141 

outline of history and altered the very foundation of 
language. Familiar objects have disappeared and strange 
forms have taken their places ; supposed facts have faded 
into fiction, and truths more wonderful have appeared in 
the vanishing mists. The much-disputed location of Ophir, 
it is decided must have been in India, because the 
names of the imports of Solomon from that country, 
" the ivory, apes, peacocks and almug trees," are found 
to have a Sanscrit form. The names Apollyon and 
Abbadon, formerly translated the Destroyer, are found 
to mean Serpent-lord — the old definition being merely a 
characteristic of the personage. Examples of like dis- 
crepancies, the result of the honest ignorance of a darker 
age, might be multiplied ad infinitum ; therefore, while I 
feel most painfully my own liability to error in this newly- 
explored field of science, and realize that the interpreta- 
tions here given may not be ultimate, I humbly ask that 
the sentence of condemnation be suspended till further 
investigation elicits certainty. 

Philology, the index of history, points with unerring 
finger to many a fact confirming our theory. 

The malignant power of the serpent or spirit of evil, 
was designated by various names. In Persia it was 
called Ah riman; in Hindustan, Kaliya; in Scandinavia, 
Midgard ; but it was most commonly expressed by the 
syllables Ob or Ab, Og, Ock, Ag y and On. This last 
may have been a perversion of the highly sacred and 
mysterious Om or Am> supposed to be the name of the 
Supreme Deity, too sacred to be uttered. The most 
usual name for God seems to have been among Semitic 
nations Al y El or All, the mighty or strong one. 

The syllables first referred to occur and recur in a 



1 42 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

strange and startling manner in the most remote and 
disconnected places, and are a key which unlocks many 
a dark mystery. 

" They had a king over them which is the angel of 
the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue 
is Abaddon, but in the Greek hath his name ApoYiyon" * 
With this text and the first and last monosyllables for 
guides, we may enter the labyrinth. We find the pres- 
ence of this evil being in the words VyXhon, Typhon, 
"Dagon, the fish god or~dragon of Philistia, Mammtf/z 
Ammw, Rimm<?/z. The destructive power of the tem- 
pests in the China sea finds expression in the word 
Typhoon. 

In Revelations we read, " I saw three unclean spirits 
come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the 
mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of 
devils working miracles, which go forth to the kings of 
the whole world to gather them to the battle of that 
great day of God Almighty. And he gathered them 
together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue 
Armageddon, and great Babylon came in remembrance 
before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the 
fierceness of his wrath." 2 

Kings and priests often took the name of the deity 
they served. Potiphera, father-in-law of Joseph, was a 
priest of On — Ra being the sun and On, the serpent. 
In the story of Sisera, general of the Canaanites, de- 
feated at the waters of Megeddo (Armageddon ?) and 
afterwards slain by Jael, the names may also be signif- 
icant. Pharaoh, i?#mesis are examples of the introduc- 



1 Rev. ix. 11. 2 Rev. xvi. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



H3- 



tion of the sungod syllable. Esarhadd^/z and Sihon, 
king of the Ammonites, were, no doubt, also priests of 
the sunserpent, the sacerdotal and kingly office being 
frequently united. The name of the god of many 
savage tribes begins with the syllable On or Un. The 
most ancient dynasty of Poland,. the yagellon, boasted 
descent from the devil, and his insignia appeared upon 
their arms. 

An attempt to unite the honor of the opposing 
deities is sometimes perceived as in the word, Ammon, 
Am> being the concealed god of the Egyptians. Babel 
is said to mean in the Chaldean or Assyrian, " the gate 
of the god," so in Babyl (or el) on we discover "the gate 
of the god and the serpent" or "gate of the serpent- 
lord." The first syllable, however, may not mean " the 
gate " but may be ab with a prefix, and the name of the 
city a union of ab and on> as is seen in Abaddon, Ap- 
ollyon; the same union occurs in y-ag-elon where ag or 
og takes the place of ab. The unendurable sin of Baby- 
lon, so reprobated and accursed in the Bible, may have 
been in this blasphemous union of words and worship. 
In the Apocrypha we read in the story of Bel and the 
Dragon ; " In the same place was a great dragon, which 
they of Babylon worshipped," and in Isaiah we find the 
kingdom of Lucifer and Babylon denounced almost as 
one. 1 

The syllable Og is a synonym of On. The Etrusci, 
whose origin is unknown are represented by Lucian as 
having introduced into Gaul a very ancient idol called 
Ogmias. His image was that of a very hideous old 

1 Is. xiv. 12; 



i 4 4 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

black man, leading a vast multitude of men by chains 
which issue from his mouth and attach to their ears. In 
the " Myths of the Rhine " it is stated that Ogma in the 
ancient Celtic tongue signified wisdom and eloquence. 
This was probably a secondary meaning implying the 
persuasive powers and wisdom of the serpent. 

K^ronians, or Ugxo Finnish Turanians, were some- 
times called. Ogres. Our English word ogte, means a 
hideous giant who lives on human flesh ; in the Latin, 
the king of the infernal regions. The word ogle, to 
leer, is another derivation. A large river in Africa is 
called Ogree. Og> of the children of Ammon, the giant 
king of Bashan, was no doubt a priest of the serpent. 
The sixty stone cities of his kingdom, it will be seen 
later in this Essay, were in accordance with Turanian 
ideas of architecture. The principal city was Ashteroth, 
named for the Astarte, the Venus of the Phoenicians, in 
whose worship Phallic ceremonies were most prominent. 
Heliogabalis a conical black stone, a phallus, was their 
sun-god image. 

Ogyges was the most ancient king of Boeotia ; he 
lived about 1500 B. C. Ogsola, the ancient name of an 
island in the Mediterranean, by a strange revulsion is 
now called Monte Christo. 

The mysterious name of God found among the 
Sclaves, a remnant of the Scythians, which philologists 
have striven to reconcile with the derived meaning, is 
made plain by our theory. In Russ, it is Bog ; in Tongu, 
Bogdor, the serpent og and the sun or, in Persian Bhaga, 
(where we trace the hag or hak } ) cognate to the Sanscrit 
Baga, " good fortune or the sun/' in cuneiform inscrip- 
tions it is Baga, From the same root come the words 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 145 

bogies, bogarts, buggers, and the Sanscrit Naga. The 
North American Indians call a deity Oki, the same with 
the Phoenician Ogi. 

Now, if we have obtained the true interpretation of 
the word Og, we may understand the Gog and Magog 
spoken of as exceedingly wicked in Ezekiel and Revela- 
tions to be the people of Og, that is, serpent worshippers, 
and that Magog, second son of Japhet, father of the 
great Turanian family, either received his name on ac- 
count of his religious defection, it being an antediluvian 
word, or that his name was given to a worship which he 
primarily introduced. The story of Eden, the character 
of the w r orship, its connection with trees and groves, the 
powers ascribed to the foul deity, favor the former con- 
jecture, an assumption confirmed by an Oriental tradition, 
which relates that the giant Og escaped destruction when 
the world was deluged, by wading beside the Ark, an 
Eastern figure which conveys the idea of the preserva- 
tion of an antediluvian name and worship. 

Although the monosyllable Og seems to be of the 
greatest antiquity, the word Ob, has perhaps been quite 
as extensively used. 

Ancient tradition relates that the first inhabitants of 
Europe were partly human and partly dragon in form, in 
allusion to their Ophite origin. Bryant and Faber, two 
learned authorities, believe the very name, Europe was 
originally Aur-ob, the Solar serpent ! l Is it not possible, 
Arabia is identical with this word Aurob? If this idea 
should prove correct, great light will be thrown on the 
prehistoric civilization of that wonderful land, the mounds 

1 The original word may have been Ar ob, /and of the serpent, 
rather than Or ob } the sun serpent. 

IO 



146 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE, 

of perished cities, the rock hewn tenements of Bashan, 
and the fragments of dracontia. 

The Scythians who were of the Turanian family, 
called their god, the sacred serpent Ob, and named their 
large river Obi, after him. 

It will be remembered in connection with the pro- 
tracted religious struggle which agitated Asia in the 
early ages after the Deluge, that a great serpent was 
worshipped, by name Afrasi^^ and Ferusharabha, the 
monosyllabic word being in this instance combined in a 
manner to us at present unintelligible. It is found in 
the most remote and disconnected places, the ^f/aches of 
North America keep live snakes in their temples, and 
Obtain, is the vilest of the gods of Dahomey. 

This name occurs frequently in the Old Testament; 
the words translated "witch" or " familiar spirit" are 
always " one that hath Ob, v ' " a consulter with one that 
hath Ob," 2 " a man or woman that hath Ob, shall surely 
be put to death." The witch of Endor was " one that 
had Ob," that is, she was a priestess of the sacred ser- 
pent. " All that do these things are an abomination to 
the Lord." 

The Bulgarians call vampires and evil spirits obours ; 
Jiob-goblins belong to the same family, ogres being their 
cousins german. 

The word, Ra-k-ab, evidently combines the sun and 
the serpent deities. 

" I will make mention of Raliab and Babylon to 
them that know me." 3 

" Thou hast broken Raliab in pieces as one that is 



1 Deut. xviii, 11. 2 Lev. xx, 27. 3 Ps. xxxvii, 4, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 147 

slain, and scattered thine enemies with thy strong 
arm." x 

" Awake, oh arm of the Lord ! awake, put on 
strength, as in ancient days, in the generations of old. 
Art thou not it that hath cut RaJiab, and wounded the 
dragon ?" 2 Allusions perhaps to the early religious wars 
before referred to. 

The woman who protected the spies sent by Joshua 
to Canaan, and who was converted to a belief in the 
true God was originally a priestess of the foul deity. 
Her familiarity with the story of Sihon and Og, her 
name Rahab, her character, a harlot, and the scarlet cord 
her insignia, are sufficient evidence of her original office. 
That the color of the insignia of this polluted idolatry 
has not been mistaken, is made plain in Rev. 17. " Upon, 
the forehead of the vile woman who is clothed in scarlet 
and purple and who sits upon the scarlet-colored beast is 
written a name, mystery, babylon the great, the 

MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE 
EARTH." 

The Chaldean god Bel is probably Obel, the Baal 
and Belial of the Bible — ifo/eazer and Ethfc/, Phoeni- 
cian kings and Jezebel, daughter of Ethbel, the wife of 
Ahab, belonged to the serpent hierarchy. 

We find these names in countries far separated ; Ba- 
lak lava in Russia, Lab hak y a ruined temple in South 
America — are a striking coincidence, and point to a 
common origin. Ak is identical with ag and means 
snake as in Hakpen Ko^daemon and ^^athadaemon. 

The Asiatic hordes, who first occupied Europe, name 

1 Ps. lxxxix, 10. 2 Is. li, 9. 



148 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

the Baltic Sea for this god, and the name is also pre- 
served in Bales Hangen and in a fire festival called Bal- 
dei's BaL Ob is the name the black races use to desig- 
nate their serpent deity in Africa, and in our own South- 
ern States at the present day, the negro sorcerers are 
called Obies, being, it is supposed, in communication with 
the devil. Poison, among the savages is called Obeah 
water, and those who sell and manufacture this deadly 
agent always have live serpents in their possession. 
Dealers in medicine may be startled to find that they 
also are called ^/othecaries and that they vend drugs, 
(drawee's French.) 

FOURTH. EVIDENCE FROM PREHISTORIC RUINS. 

If the evidence for the universality of the adoration 
of the serpent were to end here, we could hardly dissent 
from the theory of Mr. Deane's great work, that " The 
Serpent of Paradise is the serpent god of the Gentiles," 
but to all this ethnological, historical and philological 
testimony we are to add that of another class of wit- 
nesses, silent and speechless as the tomb but who will 
nevertheless tell us no doubtful story. I refer to the 
architectural ruins before alluded to, structures and edi- 
fices which lie slowly wasting beneath the touch of 
Time's corroding finger. 

These prehistoric relics, found in every part of the hab- 
itable globe, have certain uniform marks and characteristics 
which point to common origin and design, and lead to an 
increasing conviction that the great Turanian family, the 
fierce and terrible Northern hordes of profane history, 
the Gog and Magog of Scripture, whose numbers were 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE 149 

as the sands of the sea, did, in the long forgotten ages, 
sweep with their irresistible armies across the habitable 
globe, carrying with them a wonderful civilization 
and the foul and cruel counterfeit of religion, which 
is the theme of our present investigation. They are 
thus alluded to: " Son of man, set thy face against Gog, 
the land of Magog. Thou shalt ascend and come like a 
storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou 
and thy bands and many people with thee. And thou 
shalt come from thy place out of the North parts, thou, 
and many people with thee, all of them riding upon 
horses, a great company, a mighty army." * 

Of their ultimate destruction it is said : " Behold I 
am against thee, oh, Gog. I will call for a sword against 
him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord, every 
man's sword shall be against his brother, and I will plead 
against him with pestilence and with blood, and I will 
rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many 
people with him, an overflowing rain and great hail- 
stones, fire and brimstone, * * * and I will leave but a 
sixth part of them." 'This mighty and wicked people 
have perished, though perhaps a sixth part of them 
literally remain in the Turks, Tartars, Chinese, American 
Indians and other savages, but their defiling marks are 
still visible upon the bosom of the earth. 

We have confirmation of the statement of Ezekiel 
that they came from their place in the North, by the fact 
that they are spoken of in profane history as the " North- 
ern hordes." The Mohammedans in attempting to pene- 
trate Northern Syria, found the crumbling remains of 

1 Eze. xxxviii, 39. 



ISO FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

immense iron gates and walls, built across the ravines^ 
and defiles of almost inaccessible mountains, evidently 
intended for defence against some Northern enemy. 
Russia and Siberia are full of ancient names of the Sei- 
pent Deity. But more conclusive than this, is the fact 
that the oldest hieroglyphs, are not a southern invention, 
for they show the forms of birds and animals belonging to 
higher latitudes : it is also suggested that the wedge 
shaped (cuneiform) character is but a miniature phallus, 
to be classed with the pyramids, upright monoliths and 
obelisks, all of which it will be seen later are un- 
doubtedly of Turanian origin. Professor Schlieman 
found in Asiatic Turkey, in the ruins of a city deep in 
the earth, supposed to be ancient Troy, some inscrip- 
tions strangely like Chinese character. They are a 
great puzzle to the antiquarian, but by the light of our 
theory the mystery is explained : the Turanians were 
here, as everywhere, in advance. 

The pre-historic architectural relics we are now to 
consider, are various in character, countless in number, 
and are found in all habitable countries. Some of the 
most wonderful of these are found in India, on the islands 
of Salsette and Elephanta, on the coast of Coromandel, in 
Ceylon, Siam, Java, and the neighboring isles. They 
consist of underground cities, hewn from the bowels of 
mountains, extensive stone temples, colossal statues and 
reliefs of such tremendous proportions and admirable 
finish, that they seem to be the work of demigods or 
giants. 

Mrs. Leonowens visited, during her residence in Siam, 
a desolate ruin, far inland, beyond tangled and pathless 
forests, which for extent and magnificence almost defies 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 1 5 1 

credulity. This ruined city is supposed by the natives 
to have been the capital of a great Cambodian empire 
which bore sway for about four thousand years. Its 
capital, the royal city Naghkon, (significant in its first 
and last syllable, Naga, Sanscrit for serpent, and on y 
the Turanian serpent deity,) is connected with traditions 
of wild extravagance, but not improbable when we con- 
template the astonishing grandeur of the ruins. " Its 
princes/' it is said, " were without number, and paid trib- 
ute in gold, silver and precious stuffs. Its monarch 
commanded seventy thousand war elephants, two hun- 
dred thousand horsemen, and six million foot soldiers. 
The royal treasure houses covered three hundred miles 
of ground." The grand temple the Naghkon Watt is 
nearly three miles in circumference, the walls are from 
seventy to eighty feet high, and twenty feet thick. The 
form of the building is square, the architectural effect 
admirable. There are twelve superb staircases, some 
of fifty or sixty steps, each step a single stone. At each 
angle is a tower, also a central tower, higher than the 
others, besides galleries, chapels with gigantic idols, 
statues of colossal lions, and columns which rival the gi- 
gantic oaks of the forest. Five thousand three hundred 
of the columns were counted. The roofs of this magnifi- 
cent pile were of solid stone, showing no mark of chisel 
or mortar, but joined so that the seam could scarce be 
detected, the surface being smooth as polished marble. 
The amount of hewn stone is prodigious, the mountain 
from which it was quarried is two. days' journey in dis- 
tance. The entire surface of wall, ceiling and column, is 
covered over with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and bold, 
beautiful alto-reliefs, in which battles are depicted, be- 



152 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

tween men of various tribes and nations, in which the 
Hellenic type is prominent, wars of the gods, military pro- 
cessions, and peaceful scenes, women and lovely children, 
birds, flowers and animals ; gods and warriors seem to 
hang between earth and sky, so sharply are they defined. 
Here figure largely the serpent and dragon. Some com- 
partments are entirely filled with representations of the 
struggles between the angels and giants for possession of 
the snake god Sarpa Deva, or Phraya Nagk. Winged 
dragons draw the chariots, and in some places are seen 
men dragging the seven headed serpent in contrary direc- 
tions. A four-faced colossal figure, supposed to be 
Buddha, is often repeated. 1 

This is but a glance at one of the buildings in this 
lonely wilderness of wonders. 

Who reared this miracle of art and strength ? Whence 
came the hosts of skilled artists with implements and 
machinery to effect such prodigious marvels ? Whose 
was the master mind which conceived the original design ? 
Alas ! there is no answer to our questioning but a name, 
Naghkony City of the Serpent-Lord ! Naglikon Watt y 
Temple of the sacred serpent ! 

The subterranean excavations in India are hardly less 
wonderful than those in Siam. At Elephanta there is a 
temple with many apartments hewn from the solid rock, 
the principal of which is one hundred and thirty feet 
square. Here are gigantic statues of men, bulls and ser- 
pents twisted around the images, a Phallus enshrined in a 
recess and numerous inscriptions in an unknown character. 

At Carli (Kali ?) is another excavation, but the most 

1 Cherub ? 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 153 

wonderful is at Ellora, where the work extends for six 
miles, under ground. Here are seen temples, courts, 
peristyles, bridges, staircases, chapels, tanks, porticoes, 
obelisks, columns and many colossal statues, ten or 
twelve feet high. As in Siam, there are sculptures of 
surpassing extent and beauty, many of which are painted 
with wonderful skill and brilliance ; there are rows of 
sphinxes and giant elephants, and scenes from the lives of 
the gods. 

On the coast of Coromandel is a wonderful ruin, called 
"The Seven Pagodas," a grand collection of temples, 
palaces, columns, porticoes and walls, cut from solid rock. 
These buildings extend far out under the sea, and it is 
supposed some terrible convulsion of nature engulphed 
them, possibly " the overflowing rain, great hail stones, 
fire and brimstones " spoken of by Ezekiel. Here, the 
presence of the carved serpent and a colossal image of a 
god sleeping upon the thousand headed snake, and the 
emblem of Generation, are significant of the ophite char- 
acter of the lost city. 

A description of the numerous ruins in India and Cey- 
lon would exceed our limits. Although mixed with Brah- 
min and Buddhist ideas, they are undoubtedly marked 
by a civilization and religion older, more perfect and 
absolute, than any which have characterized Aryan 
supremacy in India. 

Almost as imposing are the remains of stone edifices 
and cities, overgrown with forests in Central America, 
the relics of pre-Toltic and pre-Aztec civilization. There 
is increasing evidence that these ancient people were 
of Mongol or Turanian origin, and in all these ruins, 
the images of huge carved snakes in every conceivable 



1 54 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

posture, colossal bulls and other Phallic emblems, stamp 
the religious idea as Ophiolatrous. The Spaniards who 
conquered Mexico speak of one temple, the entrance 
of which was fashioned like the wide extended jaws of a 
serpent ; to them it appeared like the very mouth of hell. 
The rock hewn cities of Petria and the black basalt 
cities of giant Bashan must be classified as belonging to 
the same type and people. 

Besides these stone temples, palaces and tenements, 
there are in many countries, structures in the form of 
pyramids or cones, sometimes entire, sometimes trun- 
cated, and occasionally built in stages. Among the for- 
mer, the famous pyramids of Egypt, and of the latter, 
the famous towers of Belus are examples. The Birs 
Nimrod is now a ruined heap, but descriptions of its 
original peculiar construction have been found in the 
Assyrian ruins. 

There are also remains of conical temples, around the 
sculptured carvings of which are stretched the contorted 
images of huge serpents. Notable examples of these 
temples or towers have been discovered in Central 
America. 

Another remarkable class of monuments, found every- 
where in the Old World, in South America and the 
islands of the ocean, are erect monoliths, large and 
small, sometimes in single and sometimes in double or 
multiple rows, serpentine in outline and undulating in 
height, placed so firmly in the ground that they have 
withstood the shock of ages. The ruins at Stonehenge, 
Karnac, Abury, as also those in the Hebrides, are of this 
type. In many places an isolated stone, carved and in- 
scribed, stands in solitary grandeur. The most perfect 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 155 

and beautiful of these stones is that which towers sky- 
ward, and catches upon its gilded top the early rays of 
the sun, at the city of Heliopolis, where dwelt Potiphera, 
priest of On, and his daughter Aseneith, the wife of the 
Hebrew ruler Joseph. 

Among savage tribes at the present time these 
objects of worship are often painted on the top a bright 
red, the color of the dragon. 1 

The ancient name given to these upright monuments 
(seen even in Christian burial places at this day) has fos- 
silized the fact of their origin. They are called Obelisks! 

A recent writer thus discourses of these mysterious 
objects: "Before every gateway in Egypt stood the obe- 
lisks, yet no one has shewn clearly what was their de- 
sign. Their great antiquity, the wonderful carvings 
upon them, the reverence they inspired for three thou- 
sand years, all convince us of their importance. Abdal- 
latif, the Mohammedan, writes of colossal sphinxes and 
countless inscriptions. Strabo, the Roman, of porticoes 
and halls, and Herodotus, the Greek, descants upon the 
wonders of Heliopolis, the city of the sun, but with re- 
gard to the significance of the obelisk, they are "all 
silent. ,, 

Now, strange as it may appear, the problem which 
Greek and Roman, and even the late writer just quoted, 
could not solve, by two little letters is made plain to us. 
The calcium flash of philology is thrown into the dark 
recesses of antiquity's night, and, by the sudden illumin- 
ation, we read what the ancients vainly endeavored to 
decipher. Deeper and deeper into the gloom of forgot- 

1 Rev. xii. 3, xvii. 3. 



156 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

ten ages may we pierce, aided by the chemistry of phil- 
ology, and discover to our amazement, far, far beyond the 
cities of Cush and Mirza, the fierce, bright sons of Ma- 
gog, restless, enterprising, imperious, with a wonderful 
civilization, with grandest of temples and palaces, and 
the Phallic emblem named for their serpent deity Obe- 
lisk ! the insignia of a worship, cruel, obscene, damna- 
ble ! ! The horror grows, the conviction forces itself that 
God permitted them to obtain the wisdom and knowledge 
the serpent promised, joined them to their idols and left 
them alone to fill up the overflowing cup of his wrath 
which they, one day, were to drink. A solemn awe comes 
over us, as we contemplate the Obelisk, sacrilegious 
finger of scorn, impiously pointed upward to the 
heavens ! 

The last, and in some respects the most extensive 
and important type of ruins we are to consider are ex- 
tensive solid earthworks, existing in various parts of the 
world, some of them over a thousand feet long, in shape 
a huge serpent. These mounds, when conical, are often 
flat on the top, with another elevation, where probably the 
fires were lighted and the sacrificial victims slain. They 
are the high places, altars of Baal, spoken of in the Bible. 
Hundreds, — it is nearer the truth to say thousands, — 
of these exist, with or without the serpentine earthworks. 
Some of them are so imposing as to deserve, and re- 
ceive the name of hills, and are so extensive, that an 
eminent geologist, Professor Hitchcock, could not at first 
believe them the work of man, but deemed they were 
the result of fluvial or diluvial action, and that the layers 
of stone, clay and gravel were natural deposits. Careful 
examination, however, shews that the clay has been 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 157 

burned, the stones shaped, and the gravel, charcoal and 
ashes lifted. 

Mr. Squier's interesting work gives a description of 
the most extraordinary of these structures. " Christian 
temples/' he remarks, "are often built in the form of a 
cross, so in primitive times sacred structures were in the 
form of predominant religious symbols." 

Pausanias says, " In the road between Thebes and 
Glisas, you may see a place encircled by select stones, 
which the Thebans call the Serpent Head." 

Stukeley says that " Dracontia was a name among the 
first learned nations for a very ancient sort of temples of 
which they could give no account, nor very well explain 
their meaning. 

Some writers have not hesitated in asserting that the 
Python of Delphi, the Dragon of Colchis and the Drag- 
on of the Hesperides were not fabulous, but real mon- 
sters, neither serpents nor dragons, but serpent temples 
and dracontia. It has even been suggested that the 
Dragon of the Hesperides was no other than the great 
serpentine temple of Karnac itself. In the same cata- 
logue have been classed the rep.uted enormous dragons 
covering acres of territory. " Iphicrates relates that in 
Mauritania were dragons of such extent that grass grew 
upon their backs. Another was said to be about an acre 
in length, and of a thickness so remarkable that two 
persons on horseback, when they rode on opposite sides, 
could not see each other. One of the dragons in the 
neighborhood of Damascus, which according to Nonnes 
was overcome by an earth born giant, is spoken of as 
being fifty acres in extent." 

These strangely outlined structures have been found 



158 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

in Northern Africa, Western Asia, Europe and even 
America. 

One of the most interesting examples yet remaining, 
is in Abury, England. It consisted originally of a grand 
circumvallation of earth, fourteen hundred feet in diame- 
ter, enclosing twenty-two acres of land ; the embankment 
is seventeen feet high, surrounded by two double rows of 
massive upright stones. There is also a row of stones 
inside the earthworks. From two opposite sides of this 
great work, extend parallel lines of the same stones for 
upward of a mile in opposite directions. These form the 
body of a serpent, whose head, outlined by stones, rests 
upon an eminence known as Hakpen Hill. This name 
is a revelation, Hak y being the old Saxon for snake, 
(hence the word hag, . snake-woman) and pen, enclosure. 
From the top of Hakpen Hill the entire structure is seen, 
extending backward with one coil for two miles. The 
huge mound encircled by the coil measures two thousand 
feet in circumference and one hundred and seventy feet 
in height. The outline of Abury forms a perfect hiero- 
gram, the very mark of the beast, which will be hereafter 
described. 

But the most stupendous work of this kind yet discov- 
ered is the gigantic temple of Karnac in Brittany on the 
coast of France. It consists of seven parallel rows of huge 
upright stones, some of them now twenty-five feet out of 
the ground, and calculated to weigh one hundred and fifty 
tons each. These rows, sinuous in outline and undulating in 
height, like the body of a serpent in motion, can be traced 
for over eleven miles. The number of stones is estimated 
at ten thousand. The great mound which commands 
this work is partly natural and partly artificial, and is 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 159 

called Mt. St. Michael. Tradition connects this immense 
temple, as well as the works at Abury and Stonehenge, 
with the worship of the ancient god of the Britons, Hu, 
styled by the old bards, " The glancing Hu, the gliding 
king, the dragon ruler of the world," and was no doubt 
the Hea of the Assyrians, and the Hu of Dahomey. 

Mr. Palgrave found in Central Arabia, a work precise- 
ly the same in character, though in a more ruinous condi- 
tion. The Arabs told him there were other similar re- 
mains. 

Passing the less important structures in Europe, we 
will consider some of those found in our own country, 
where they are very numerous, over two hundred small 
and unimportant works having been discovered in the 
state of New York alone. 

One of the most remarkable dracontia is situated on 
Bush Creek, Adams County, Ohio, and is described by 
Mr. Squier. " It is called the Great Serpent and occu- 
pies the summit of a crescent-formed hill. Conforming 
to the curve of the land, an embankment is built in the 
form of a serpent, its head resting near the point of the 
hill, and its body winding back in graceful undulations, 
terminating in a triple coil at the tail. The entire length 
if extended would be one thousand feet. The neck of 
the serpent is stretched out and its mouth wide open, as 
if swallowing or ejecting an oval figure which partially 
rests within its extended jaws. This figure measures one 
hundred and sixty feet longest, and eighty feet shortest 
diameter. On either side of the head are two triangular 
elevations ten or twelve feet broad." 

There are smaller mounds of a similar character near 
the mouth of Bush Creek. 



i6o FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 



An effigy of an alligator occurs near Granville, Ohio. 
Structures in the form of animals exist in Wisconsin, and 
the extreme North-west. In St. Peters, Iowa, is a large 
conical truncated mound, sixty feet at the base and 
eighteen feet high. It is surrounded by a circle three 
hundred and sixty feet in circumference. Entwined 
around this circle in a triple coil, is an embankment in 
the form of a serpent, two thousand three hundred and 
ten feet in length, the body in the largest place being 
eighteen feet and its elevation six feet. This work is 
composed of blue clay, charcoal, sand and ashes. 

Another extensive work in Iowa is one thousand and 
four feet long. These wonderful mounds are found in 
great numbers and extent throughout the entire West, 
unmistakably the works of men whose memory is blotted 
out from the records of the human family. Their skulls 
have been found in Asia, Europe, and America, in 
mounds of rough masonry called cairns, in earth-work 
called barrows, and in the deposits of caves. Recently 
the remains of a Pre-Aryan race have been found in 
Southern India and the valley of the Narbadda, and by the 
Abbe Richard in a substratum of gravel between Mount 
Tabor and the Lake of Tiberias in Palestine. In all 
cases the skulls are long-headed like the now existing 
Turanian tribes. 

These monuments of the forgotten past, rock cut 
cities, towers, and temples, erect monoliths, solitary or 
in lengthened lines, and gigantic earth works, have been 
called Buddhist temples in the East, Druidical circles in 
Europe, and Indian mounds in America, misnomers all) 
they are everywhere Ophite structures erected in honor 
of the serpent, for upon some of them of every type is 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 161 



impressed a strange character the serpent seal, the veri- 
table mark of the beast, " The trail of the serpent is over 
them all ! " 

This sacred Symbol or hierogram is a peculiar figure 
representing a circle or globe from which issues one or 
two serpents, and in many cases two outspread wings. 
It is found engraved or sculptured upon the relics of an- 
tiquity in Persia, Egypt, China, Java, Hindustan, Greece, 
Italy, Asia Minor, Great Britain and America, and it is 
sometimes outlined by the dracontia. 

The history of this emblem as given by Mr. Deane is 
startling: "The cross," he says, "is a very ancient and 
highly venerated symbol. Mr. Kircher believes it is anti- 
diluvian." The Egyptian Thoth, who is said to be the 
inventor of letters, introduced this sacred figure into the 
alphabet. After the death and apotheosis of Thoth, this 
letter was named for him Thau, in Greek it was called 
Tau, and it is our letter T. A circle or globe was after- 
ward added to represent Deity, - whom Trismegestus of 
Egypt (supposed to be Joseph the Hebrew) defined to be 
a circle whose centre is everywhere, and whose circum- 
ference is nowhere, the original cross being intended to* 
represent the four elements. 

It is thus referred to in the Bible, " Set a mark upon 
the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry for the abomi- 
nations that are done in the city." 1 The original char- 
acter which is translated " a mark " is the veritable Thau 
in its old cruciform shape. 

A remarkable passage in Isaiah distinctly refers to 
serpent worship and its peculiarities. " For behold the 



1 Eze. ix. 4. 
II 



1 62 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants 
of the earth for their iniquity, the earth shall also disclose 
her blood and shall no more cover her slain." " In that 
day shall the Lord with his sore and great and strong 
sword, punish Leviathan, the piercing (or crossing like a 
bar) serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent, and he 
shall slay the dragon that is in the sea * * * when he 
maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are 
beaten in sunder, the grove or the poles? and the {sun) 
images shall not stand up. 

This hierogram, altered and perverted by the ingenu- 
ity of the Evil Spirit, was adopted as his own insignia by 
the substitution of the serpent and wings for the arms of 
the cross. 

This counterfeit brand is mentioned in Rev., " and he 
(the beast) causeth all, both great and small, rich and 
poor, bond and free, to receive a mark in their right hands 
and in their foreheads." 4 " The witnesses of Jesus who 
had not worshipped the beast neither received his mark 
on their foreheads, or in their hands. 5 " 

Recent atheistic writers whose unenviable specialty 
has been to drag into light vermin spawn and monstrous 
reptiles engendered and buried in the slime of the Eu- 
phrates and the Mokh of the Nile, for the express purpose 
apparently, of destroying religious faith, represent that 
the serpent has been ever worshipped as an emblem of 
the Great Creator, and that the original cross was the 
Asherah y or stem of a tree, united with the erect serpent 
forming a Phallic and Ophite emblem which Christianity 

1 Is. xxvi. 21. 2 Asherah. 3 Is. xxvii. I and 9. 

4 Rev. xiii, 16. 5 Rev. xx. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 163 

has adopted. The facts as they appear to the common 
sense reader, indicate that the serpent was never worship- 
ped as the Great Creator, the first cause, but always as 
the re-creator or secondary cause, and there are reasons 
to induce a belief that the cross, which is conceded by 
all to be of the greatest antiquity, was originally a mono- 
gram of the cherub^ sometimes represented as the serpent 
and the pole — the four-fold mystery, earth, air, fire and 
water, and the meaning of Gen. iii. 24 may be, u The 
forces of nature were henceforth arrayed against the 
health and life of man, even electricity, the vital principal, 
became a death bearing element." The death of Christ 
by the common mode of Roman crucifixion may not 
have been, what we term an accidental circumstance, 
but a token that the cherub was again brought into har- 
mony with man ; the venerable symbol, stolen and per- 
verted by the evil one to the injury of the race which he 
hates, was restored by Christ to the race he loves, and 
its meaning is now as in the olden time, Life, Life, Eter- 
nal Life. 

In the last pages of the sacred book, the objects seen 
in the Beginning reappear ; we have a glimpse of Para- 
dise regained, the Old Serpent is re-legated to his own 
place, his counterfeits are exposed, the dry asherah of 
the wilderness buds, the cherub frowns no longer, " the 
leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the na- 
tions," holiness and happiness close the world's great 
drama of sin and sorrow. 

The power of a malignant influence bent on destroy- 
ing the soul of man, was never more apparent than in 
the history of Ophiolatry. Call it by what name you 
prefer, Ahriman, Apollyon, Abaddon or Satan, some 



1 64 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

wicked spirit, malignant and cruel, has ever been drag- 
ging men downward to slavery, misery, moral corruption 
and death, substituting a loathsome and venomous reptile, 
his true image, for the Deity who is holy and benevolent, 
making the butchery of human beings, and other abom- 
inable rites, the sacrifice of expiation, which the serpent 
demands, and even converting the emblem of salvation 
into his seal of damnation. Let the wise atheist explain 
the presence of evil in the world more rationally than the 
Bible has done, if it is possible. 

Our study of this interesting subject must now close. 
The evidence, drawn from many sources, is cumulative 
and convincing that the worship of the serpent has been 
prevalent from the islands of Java and Sumatra to the 
coast of Oregon, from Australia to the Hebrides and 
Iceland, for throughout this vast expanse, have his tem- 
ples been discovered ; and also, that at some unremem- 
bered period in the grey oblivion of the past, Turanian 
domination was universal, that the resistless hordes of 
that terrible family, like a mighty tidal wave, heaved by 
infernal throes, has rolled round the world, bearing upon 
its resistless breakers the elements of an extraordinary 
political power, a wonderful civilization, and a foul, cruel 
mockery of religion, an awful bondage to sin and death, 
ancient as the serpent of Paradise. 

In the practices of the savage tribes, by the faint 
glimmer of myth and tradition, by the steadier light of 
history, by the electric flash of Philology, the ghastly 
spectacle is revealed ; and in the crumbling ruins of a 
vanishing past, our horrified eyes can clearly trace the 
scar which the serpent's trail has left upon the bosom of 
our Mother Earth. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 165 

This device of the Devil has tainted the most exalted 
religions of mankind, corrupting the lofty Dualism of 
Persia, even during the lifetime of the great reformer, 
sapping the morality which Confucius and Gotama gave 
to the world, defiling the monotheism of the Hebrews 
and fastening its relentless fangs upon Christianity it- 
self. 

But while we shudder at the dreadful delusion under 
which the men of antiquity groaned, and turn with hor- 
ror and disgust from the shrieks of the self-mutilated 
Yezdis, the obscene rites of the Obi sorcerers, and bleed- 
ing bodies of the human sacrifices in Dahomey, we should 
ask ourselves thoughtfully, does Devil worship end here? 
Listen to the voice of the French revolutionists at the 
close of the eighteenth century. " Adversary of the 
'Eternal,'' prays M. Proudhon, "be on my side; Satan, 
whoever you may be, I will take your word, and ask for 
nothing more. Come, Satan, the calumniated of priests 
and kings, that I may embrace you, that I may clasp you 
to my heart " ! And in the middle of this nineteenth 
century Feuerbach exclaims, " We adore the great, the 
all-powerful Negation. This Negation in its concrete 
form is evil, impiety, hatred of God, horror of men. It 
is what the Christian calls Satan, the personification and 
principle of division, that spirit of contradiction which 
leads to utter ruin and annihilation ! " Satan came at 
the call of the French revolutionists, and amid fire and 
fury, on his high altar, the guillotine drank the hlood of 
sacrifice. Are not our scientific atheists even now ruling 
God out of the Universe ? " Oh my soul, come thou not 
into their councils." 

And yet closer let us examine before we are certain 



1 66 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

that the mark of the beast has not been received upon 
our own hearts. Is not Mammon as well as Moloch the 
agent of the Evil One ? Was the craving in the men of 
antiquity for wisdom and knowledge stronger than the 
desire for the glory of this world, its riches and power, 
in the hearts of the men of this generation ? Whence 
come the pestilent vapors which darken our moral atmos- 
phere, and distort our mental vision, if not from the 
seething lake where the serpent has his home ? When 
avarice, lust, hatred, envy and jealousy sway our hearts so 
that we are ready to sacrifice the fortune, reputation and 
happiness of another, do we not carry a human victim 
to the Devil's altar and spiritually perform the hellish rite ? 
But while we confess with shame, almost with despair, 
that, like our first Mother, men still do listen to the 
whispers of the Destroyer, let us remember that the 
Love of Christ can triumph over the Hate of the Devil, 
in our hearts and in the world. 

In the commencement of our investigation, we looked 
backward, through the receding perspective of past ages, 
to that strange, inexplicable event, when, in the form of 
a serpent, an evil being introduced sin and its fatal con- 
sequence into this beautiful world. 

The story of the Temptation, as narrated in the first 
chapters of the Bible, has been condemned as a fabrica- 
tion, a myth, an Oriental fable ; but tracing the painful 
progress and history of Adam's posterity, through the 
long precession of the millenniums, we are convinced that 
the writer of the book of Genesis has narrated, not a 
poetical fiction but a literal fact, and we may with in- 
creased confidence believe in a prophecy of the final ex- 
pulsion of the serpent from the world he has so long 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 167 

cursed by his malignant machinations, which is contained 
in the concluding chapters of the same Book, and in 
which the mysterious words reappear : — 

" I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the 
key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 
And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old serpent, which 
is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand 
years, and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him 
up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the 
nations no more till the thousand years be fulfilled, and 
after that he must be loosed for a little season. And I 
saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was 
given to them, and I saw the souls of them that were 
beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of 
God which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, 
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads nor 
in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years. * * * And when the thousand years 
are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of prison, and 
shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the 
four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather 
them together to battle, the number of whom is as the 
sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the 
earth and compassed the camp of the saints about and 
the beloved city, and fire came down from God, out of 
heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived 
them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where 
the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented 
day and night forever and ever." 1 

1 Rev. xx. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SABAE-ISM. 

STAR WORSHIP. 

" They deemed either fire, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent 
water, or the lights of heaven, to be gods, which govern the world." — Wisdom of 
Solomon. 

THE great desert belt which crosses the Eastern 
Hemisphere, is broken by oases formed in the beds of 
the large rivers. One of these desert gardens, called in 
the earliest ages, the plains of Shinar, afterward Mesopo- 
tamia (" the land of the two rivers "), and at present Turkey 
in Asia, is watered by the majestic Tigris and Euphrates, 
which run through its entire length and empty into the 
Persian Gulf on the south. 

To this semi-tropical plain, the family of Noah re- 
paired, after the subsidence of the Great Flood. The 
sons of Ham (Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan), at a 
remote period, occupied the greater portion of South-west- 
ern Asia. Mizraim pushed forward into Egypt ; Canaan, 
who settled on the east shore of the Mediterranean Sea, 
was father of the Phoenicians and Sidonians ; Cush re- 
mained upon the plains, and there his son Nimrod ("the 
rebel " ), a mighty man, founded the great Babylonian 
Kingdom, which was destined to rule the world for many 
generations. He built Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh, 
and became a proverb, " Even as Nimrod, the mighty 
hunter before the Lord. ,, From his appellation, " the 
rebel," and the names chosen for his cities, it is certain 
that he had defected from the God of his father, and was 
an idolater. 

The sons of Ham were not the originators of the won- 

168 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 169 



derful civilization which flourished in the cities built by 
them upon the genial shores of the Mediterranean, and 
in the valleys of the Nile and Euphrates. They adopted, 
and, possibly, improved upon the ideas of a people who 
preceded them, and, long before their era, had crowded 
these gardens of the desert. Crumbling mounds, rock- 
hewn dwellings, temples and fortifications, words and 
allusions, sparsely scattered in Egyptian, Chaldean and 
Sanscrit writings, justify the belief, that here dwelt power- 
ful nations, before whose grandeur and magnificence, 
those who succeeded them " pale their ineffectual fires." 
The Greeks were as ignorant of their origin as ourselves, 
although Herodotus and Agathias speak of the Sabeans, 
or Arabians, as the richest people in the world. Their 
houses, temples and palaces overflowed with silver and 
gold furniture, ivory and precious stones. Their house- 
hold appointments were sumptuous beyond belief ; even 
their roofs, pillars and porticoes were ornamented with 
gold and silver fret-work, and set with precious stones. 
Two colonies were sent off from this great hive of activity ; 
one crossed the Red Sea into Egypt, and the other went 
northward into the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. 

Berosus, a Chaldean sage, who translated the annals 
of his country into Greek, thus relates the story of their 
advent : 

" In the first year, there appeared from that part of 
the Erythraean Sea which borders on Babylonia, an ani- 
mal, destitute of reason, by name Oannes, whose whole 
body was that of a fish ; and under the fish's head, he had 
another head ; with feet, also, similar to those of a man. 
His voice, too, and language, were articulate and human, 
and a representation of him is preserved unto this day 



170 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

This being was accustomed to pass the day among men, 
and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, 
and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct 
cities, to frame laws, and explained to them the principles 
of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish 
the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect 
the fruits ; in short, he instructed them in everything 
that could tend to soften their manners, and humanize 
their lives, And, when the sun was set, this being, 
Oannes, retired again to the sea, and passed the night in 
the deep." 

The Oannes of this curious myth, may have been a 
priest of On, the fish god, or Dagon. His image is iden- 
tical with that of the latter. Or, he may have been a 
navigator, thus described because he arrived upon their 
shores in a ship. 

Who were the pre-historic people from whom Oannes 
came, unequalled in science, magnificence and luxury ? 
We can hazard a conjecture, the wisest can do no more. 
They were called Rephaim, a word which signifies power- 
ful, gigantic men ; also Enim, "the terrible," Zuzim and 
Zumzummim, " those whose language cannot be under- 
stood, from its buzzing sound." The word in Phoenician 
signifies " Manes," " the shades of the departed." Their 
kings were sometimes called Og. They may have been 
the remnants of an anti-diluvian people, or the sons of 
Magog, serpent-worshipping Turanians. The Hamites, 
already inclined to idolatry, may have adopted their re- 
ligion with their civilization. 

The nations descended from this family, were distin- 
guished by great energy, intellectual force and inventive 
power ; in the arts, sciences, letters, in commercial en- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 1 7 1 

terprise, and everything that tends to wealth and material 
progress ; they excelled their nobler relatives, the Sem- 
itic and Aryan tribes. The Phoenicians were sea-rovers ; 
they founded a colony at Carthage, in North Africa, and 
explored the continent of Europe, even to the shores of 
Norway. The Sidonians and Syrians remained at home, 
to use and manufacture the rich materials which the 
Phoenician ships brought to their market. 

The sons of Mizra, developed a wonderful civilization 
upon the banks of the Nile, and great Babylon became 
a synonym of power and wickedness. Some idea of the 
magnificence and dense population of Lower Chaldea, 
may be estimated from the explorations of Mr. Loftus, 
who discovered in a small area, the ruins of thirty large 
cities. The remote date of their era, may be inferred 
from the fact, that the oldest of these cities, Ur, was 
built at the mouth of the Euphrates where it entered the 
Persian Gulf ; the ruins are now one hundred and fifty 
miles inland ! the intervening country having been 
formed by deposits brought down by " the two rivers." 
With this fact before us, we shall no longer be stag- 
gered by the dates of ancient writers, so at variance 
w T ith our orthodox chronologers. Mr. Baldwin remarks, 
" Christianity must certainly be of divine origin, or it 
would never have survived the bungling of its commen- 
tators." 

The Hamites were devoted to astronomy and astrol- 
ogy ; by persistent contemplation of the heavenly bodies, 
they discovered that the health and material prosperity 
of mankind depended largely upon their positions and 
conjunctions. Forgetting the Ruler of Heaven and 
Earth, they worshipped his creation, an idolatry which 



172 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

is called Sabaeism — star-worship, 1 though all the heaven- 
ly bodies are included in this appellation, a religion only 
less cruel and immoral than Ophiolatry, to which it is 
closely allied. It is possible, that the one is only a mod- 
ification of the other, their dark colors tinge all ancient 
religious thought. 

The principal deity was Ilu, El, or Baal, " the god." 
He was also named for his attributes Sed or Set, " the 
omnipotent/' Hadad, " the only one," Moloch, " the 
king," Shamas or Chamos, " the governor," less frequent- 
ly he was Jaoh, " the being," or "the eternal " (Hebrew 
Jahve or Jehovah), and very often was worshipped under 
the plural name of Baalim. The sun is this deity, or his 
representative. 

Below Baal was a triad, Ana, or Oannes, primordial 
chaos, Bel, the originator of the world, Bin, divine light. 
Then came Sin, the moon-god, and the five planets 
known to these astronomers, although suspecting the ex- 
istence of others, they adored " the unknown one." Adar 
was Saturn, Merodach Jupiter, Nergal Mars, Ishtar 
Venus, Nebo Mercury ; beneath them countless inferior 
gods and genii. Great heroes were also deified ; Nimrod 
and Asshur were among the most popular gods. This 
last name may be the same as the Aryan Asura y "a 
spirit." Hence Ashtaroth, goddess of sensual desire, 
and Asherah, the place where her rites were celebrated 
with those of Baal, translated " grove " in the Old Testa- 
ment. Most of these deities had a female counterpart or 
" reflection," Anat, Billet, Taauth, Ashtaroth or Astarte, 
Thammuz, Shedath, Atargath 

1 From Saba a Star, or Seba the son of Cush. Hence the names 
Sheba and Sabean. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 173 

Egypt and its religion, although belonging to the 
same family group, is from its great importance and dis- 
tinctive character, treated in a separate chapter. These 
gods were acknowledged and invoked upon all solemn 
occasions ; inscriptions upon buildings often give them 
honor. " Bel Dagon, laid the foundation of my city," 
" Anat, prospers the work of my hand," " Bin, gave me 
good fortune," " Merodach my good lord, helped me." 

The symbol of El or Ilu, is a ring or the sun's disc 
with eagle's wings and tail, sometimes a human head is 
added. Bel Dagon or Oannes, is represented as a fish 
with a human head inside his open mouth, and his lower 
extremities an eagle's tail. Bel is also found in human 
form, wearing bull's horns. Bin and Hea, were symbol- 
ized- by a serpent. Many of the Phoenician and Assyrian 
symbols, probably derived, as were some of their rites, 
from the serpent worshippers, are too vile to be mentioned. 

The towers of the Hamite cities, often built in seven 
stages and colored to represent the heavenly bodies, 
were always used, as were the pyramids, for astronomical 
purposes Observatories were also attached to the pal- 
aces, and on their lofty heights, the priests scanned the 
clear and cloudless heavens, and from the situation of the 
stars, prognosticated calamity or good fortune, regulated 
the affairs of the nation, appointed the propitious hours 
for hunting expeditions, war, and other important events. 

They also practised divination by the flights of .birds, 
dreams, prodigies and the examination of the entrails of 
sacrificed victims; they not only predicted, but, as was 
believed, controlled the future, by fasts, purifications, 
sacrifices, and enchantments. These priests were called 
Magi or Great Ones, hence our word magic. The Archi- 



174 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

Magus was next to the king in power — and from his 
supposed ability to control destiny, held unbounded in- 
fluence over the multitude. The priestly power and 
skill were transmitted from father to son, the tuition was 
commenced in infancy, and carried on in schools of divi- 
nation ; in this manner great perfection was acquired. 

The idols of these nations were imposing and beauti- 
ful. Enormous winged bulls and lions with the majestic 
head of a man, were the most awe-inspiring. The He- 
brew prophet says " It is a land of graven images, they 
are mad uppn their idols." I cannot resist the convic- 
tion, that these monstrous and unnatural forms were not 
images of their gods, but symbols or impersonations of 
the forces of nature, not the person, creator, reproducer, 
or healer, but the principle, generation, reproduction, re- 
cuperation, purification ; the cherubim and seraphim of 
the Bible. 1 

Stones, particularly aerolites, extraordinary gems, 
obelisks and rough conical stones, were objects of adora- 
tion, u Mr. Movers, who has studied the subject scien- 
tifically says," the religious system of the Phoenicians, 
was an apotheosis of the forces and laws of nature, and 
an adoration of the objects in which these forces were 
seen and where they appeared most active." Round this 
system gathered, in the external and public worship, a 
host of frightful debaucheries, orgies, and prostitutions. 
The Canaanites were remarkable for atrocious cruelty in 
the worship and precepts of their religion. No other 
people rivalled them in the mixture of bloodshed and de- 
bauchery, with which they thought to honor the Deity. 
The celebrated Creuzer said, " Terror was the inherent 

1 See Chap, on Ophiolatry. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 175 

principle of their religion, all its rites were blood-stained, 
all its ceremonies surrounded by gloomy images. When 
we consider the abstinences, voluntary torture, and hor- 
rible sacrifices imposed as a duty upon the living, we no 
longer wonder that they envied the repose of the dead. 
This religion silenced all the best feelings of human na- 
ture, degraded men's minds by superstition alternately 
profligate and cruel, and we seek in vain for any good it 
could have effected. The greatest atrocity perhaps, was 
the burning of infants. These barbarous sacrifices took 
place every year, and were frightfully multiplied in times 
of public calamity — at all critical conjunctures they were 
celebrated. In vain did the Greeks and Romans en- 
deavor to stop these hideous immolations. Christianity 
alone succeeded in finally eradicating them/' * 

Some of their unhallowed rites and symbols are of 
such an abominable character that Christian writers de- 
clined to describe them. Certain atheists however, have 
recently published works under the specious pretence of 
scientific investigation, with titles calculated to impose 
upon the unwary, in which they have exhibited an entire 
absence of such a delicate sense of propriety. One of 
these meretricious writers with shameless effrontery re- 
marks, " The grossest form of worship, is compatible 
with general purity of morals/' " The existence of per- 
sonal vice does not ruin a nation in its collective capa- 
city/ , " We rejoice to know that the causeless curse " (of 
Noah upon Ham) u never fell/' 

Does this writer intentionally design to misrepresent, 
or does anti-christian bigotry blind his eyes to patent 
facts ? 

1 Anc. His. of the East, Chevalier and Le Normant. 



176 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

It is historically true, that the " gross worship " of 
the Hamite nations, produced such a horrible social condi- 
tion, such a prevalence of " personal immorality and vice," 
that enervation, subjugation, decay, and final extinction 
were the result. The curse of Noah was fulfilled ; the 
only remnants of the family of Ham, are a few degraded 
tribes upon the north east borders of Africa, the " servants 
of servants. " The corruption of the body politic, resulted 
in national death. 

The Old Testament scriptures are filled with allusions 
to Ophiolatry and Sabaeism ; the Israelites are continually 
warned of the dangers of example and association. The 
prophets hurled anathemas and prophecies against the 
abominable idolaters, who are often spoken of, under the 
generic name of Babylon. The books of Jeremiah, 
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Nahum and Daniel will be interesting in 
this connection. The downfall of some of their great 
cities was minutely foretold when these cities were in the 
height of their power and glory. 

Jeremiah 51 chapt. 31, 32, 37 verses, thus foretells the 
fall of Babylon. " One post shall run to meet another, and 
one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of 
Babylon that his city is taken at one end, and that the 
passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned 
with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. And Babylon 
shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an 
astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant." 
Also Isaiah, 13 chapt. 17, 19, 20, 21, 22. " Behold, I 
will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not re- 
gard silver ; and as for gold, they shall not delight in 
it. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty 
of the Chaldee's excellency, shall be as when God 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. ^77 



overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be 
inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to 
generation ; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, 
neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But 
wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses 
shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell 
there, and satyrs dance there. And the wild beasts of 
the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons 
in their pleasant palaces ; and her time is near to come, 
and her days shall not be prolonged." 

History teaches no more solemn and impressive lesson 
than that conveyed by the annals of the Hamite nations. 
<% Waves of ungodliness are the sure precursors of convul- 
sion," * arrogance, avarice, luxury and immorality, inevit- 
ably herald destruction. Wealth, power, and numerical 
strength cannot save ; perpetuity exists in good alone. 
These debauched and cruel nations have perished, but 
their science and inventions live on, and we are benefit- 
ed by them this day. 

We may also learn from this review, the perishable 
nature of mere material aggrandizement. Let us leave 
for a few moments our present surroundings, our petty 
cares and circumscribed interests, the sordid passions, 
strifes and emulations of our every day life, and in the 
dim twilight, gaze upon a crumbling mound, all that re- 
mains of Babylon the Mighty. Low hillocks, overgrown 
embankments, sluggish streams oozing over barren 
marshes, fragments of pottery and inscribed brick, mark 
the spot where temples, palaces, towers, aqueducts and 
paradises, lay under the beams of an unclouded Asiatic 
sun. 

1 Froude. 
12 



178 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

" Is yonder huge and shapeless heap," 
" What once hath been aerial gardens " 
" Rising height on height ? " 

Here a mass of rubbish indicates the palace of the 
great Senecharib, across the sunken marsh where the 
Euphrates once flowed in a walled channel, another 
mound marks the site of Belus' Tower, in whose lofty- 
chambers, the subtle, imperturbable Magician read night- 
ly in the vaults of heaven, the fate of men and nations. 
Did the silent stars tell him of this desolation ? Where 
are mighty kings and captains, who, clothed in gold-em- 
broidered robes, and mounted upon neighing war charg- 
ers, led their swarming armies through the brazen port- 
als to distant war ? Where the wardens of the hundred 
gates, and. the sentinels who kept watch upon the dizzy 
towers ? Where the fair women and sweet children, who 
gazed with delight upon the dazzling scene, or welcomed 
with songs and smiles, the pageant of the conqueror's re- 
turn ? Where the groaning captives whose unwilling 
toil raised these stupendous piles, and when the labors 
of the sultry day were over, " sat by the rivers of Babylon, 
and wept" at the remembrance of the home they were 
never more to behold ? 

Monarch and captive, seer and slave, infant and sol- 
dier, all crumbled to undistinguishable dust ! A solitary 
stork, dimly outlined in the light of dying day, stands 
motionless upon a broken column, the jackal creeps forth 
with hungry cry, the owl hoots from the ruined battle- 
ments, the serpent rears his head, the bat flits by on un- 
steady wing. Indescribable gloom and sadness fill the. 
heart and we mournfully sigh, "Is this the end of human 
aspiration and achievement, and must all our hopes thus 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 179 

perish" ? From the departed Magi comes no response, 
but to Baal, their god, who looks placidly down upon the 
ruin of his worshippers, the Christian may triumphantly 
say: 

" What though beneath thee, man puts forth 

His pomp, his pride, his skill; 
And arts that made fire, flood, and earth 

The vassals of his will ; — 
Yet mourn I not thy parted sway, 

Thou dim discrowned king of day : 
For all those trophied arts 
And triumphs that beneath thee sprang, 

Heal'd not a passion or a pang, 
Entailed on human hearts. 

Go — let oblivion's curtain fall 

Upon the stage of men, 
Nor with thy rising beams recall, 

Life's tragedy again. 
Its piteous pageants bring not back, 

Nor waken flesh, upon the rack 
Of pain, anew to writhe ; 
Stretch'd in disease's shapes abhorr'd, 

Or mown in battle by the sword, 
Like grass beneath the scythe. 

The spirit shall return to Him 

That gave its heavenly spark ; 
Yet think not, Sun, it shall be dim, 

When thou thyself art dark ! 
No ! it shall live again, and shine, 

In bliss unknown to beams of thine ; 
By him recall'd to breath, 
Who captive led captivity, 

Who robb'd the grave of Victory, — 
And took the sting from Death ! " 

Thomas Campbell's "Last Man." 



CHAPTER VIL 
CHINA AND ITS RELIGIONS. 

" I am a transmitter, I only hand on." 

IN gazing down the receding avenues of past ages to 
that misty point where history and mythology are 
blended in an obscure twilight, we are frequently 
startled by abrupt turns, revolutions, and convulsions 
which change the aspect of history and the destiny of 
nations. 

But in the subject we now propose to consider we 
shall meet with no such surprises ; our wonder will be 
given to that calm monotony, placid sameness, and un- 
varying repetition, which have made Permanence almost 
a synonym for China. 

The name China, given to that country by western 
discoverers, is never used by the natives ; their country 
is Tsin or Sin. The ancient namewas Tien-Hia, literally 
" beneath the sky" that is, all the world, and they still 
believe there is very little outside their own domain, an 
insignificant remnant which they regard with profound 
contempt. And when we take into account the vast terri- 
tory of the Chinese Empire, five million three hundred 
thousand square miles, its population of nearly five hun- 
dred millions, one-half that of the entire globe, its mag- 
nificent river system and coast line of twenty-five hun- 

180 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 18 1 

dred miles, its varied climate and productions, its perfect 
agriculture, its hoary antiquity, the lengthened chronol- 
ogy of its civilization and literature, and the permanence 
of its institutions, we can but acknowledge their right to 
boast superiority. 

Old Egypt counts her dynasties, where other nations 
count the reign of individual monarchs, its millenniums 
where other nations mark the centuries ; but in the oldest 
tombs of that ancient land are found laid away among 
the shrivelled mummies, dishes of Chinese porcelain 
with the same letters, and same grotesque figures which 
are impressed upon their wares at this day. The oldest 
rock inscription in the world, it is supposed, is in the 
province of Shenshi ; it commemorates the wonderful 
achievements of the Emperor Yu. A written memorial 
is also extant which was presented to a Chinese monarch 
by a disaffected subject when Egypt had barely produced 
her first rude hieroglyphs. 

Venerable China! We Americans, whose national 
infancy has barely attained its first century, we light 
ephemera, make our humble obeisance to you this day ! 

The Chinese are small in stature, but not ill-formed, 
with yellow complexion, oblique set eyes, and black hair. 
Their expression is lifeless and melancholy. They are 
very industrious, and some of the merchants are im- 
mensely rich. They are our antipodes in everything; 
the whole bent and structure of their minds, if the ex- 
pression may be allowed, is the opposite of our own. 
" Westward the course of all other empires takes its 
way," Eastward the Chinese took theirs. 

Their soldiers wear quilted petticoats, and attack the 
enemy in the night, with lanterns in their hands. 



182 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

They pay their physicians during health, but the 
salary is suspended during sickness. 

The needle of their compass points South instead of 
North. 

Fire works, of which they are extensive manufac- 
turers, are exhibited in the day-time. 

A man doomed to death is often compelled to be his 
own executioner. 

To punish an enemy, they will sometimes commit 
suicide on his doorstep. 

Soldiers sometimes run from the enemy and after- 
ward kill themselves to avoid punishment. 

A young and beautiful woman is a slave, but when 
she becomes old and withered, she is a despot in her 
family. 

They warm wine and fry ice. 

Birds' nests, snails, puppies, rats, and the offal of fowl 
and fish are articles in their menu, but milk is rejected 
with horror. 

White is the color for mourning, the principal piece 
of furniture a coffin, and the chief room in the house is 
devoted to their ancestors. 

They are literal copyists, allowing their own judg- 
ment not the slightest latitude, a peculiarity which some- 
times causes ridiculous blunders, as in case of the 
Englishman who sent an old coat to a Chinese tailor as 
a pattern for a new one. The garment came a perfect 
reproduction of the old one, even to a three-cornered patch 
upon the elbozv. A lady sent out a cup as a sample for a 
tea set she wished manufactured, laying into the bottom of 
the dish a piece of paper, on which she wrote the direc- 
tion. " Put a sprig of tea in here." What was her chagrin 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 183 

when her beautiful cups arrived to find engraved in 
ineradicable characters in the bottom of each dish, Put 
a sprig of tea in here ! 

Ethnologists have been puzzled in trying to classify 
this peculiar people, but there are evidences in the 
structure of the Chinese language and religious idea 
which induce a growing conviction that they must be 
placed in the great Turanian family. The language is 
monosyllabic and of a very primitive form, the religion 
is atheistic in tendency, and the dragon is the national 
emblem, but the Chinese are in some respects 'antipodal 
to other branches of the Turanians as they are to the 
other nations of the earth. 

M. De Pauer, an eminent French scholar, believes 
that a party of Tartar Scythians, who were of the Tu- 
ranian family, guided by the mountain streams, crossed 
the high ridges of Tartary on the south, and descended 
into the fertile plains below, more than five thousand 
years ago. The earliest Chinese history represents them 
a wild horde, roving the forests at the foot of these 
mountains, without houses, fire or clothing, except the 
skins of the animals they had killed for food, adding to 
their fare roots and insects. Their chief at this time 
was Yoo-tson, who induced them to locate and build huts 
of boughs and trees. *. 

It might startle us, if we had not been prepared for 
such a possibility, to learn that these wild nomads coming 
from Western Asia at such an early date found a people 
already in possession of the soil, with whom they had a 
long contest for supremacy. 

The greatest of the ancient chiefs was Yu, the hero 
of the rock inscription at Shenshi, the engineering 



184 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

- * 

genius who first controlled the rivers of China in their 
periodical inundations. After his reign the new kingdom 
advanced rapidly in civilization and importance, for they 
had brought with them from their native country, 
wherever that might be, the arts of agriculture and 
weaving, and from the first they raised grain, flax and 
mulberry trees for the silk worm. They possessed even 
then the elements of their present letters, had some ac- 
quaintance with astronomy, knew pretty accurately the 
length of the year, and understood the process of inter- 
calation to prevent, the dates of the season from getting 
into disorder. 

They understood the use of the compass, and also 
the manufacture of gunpowder long before the western 
nations dreamed of them. 

All these facts point to a Turanian origin, to the 
early art and civilization possessed by that strange 
family. 

The laws, institutions and governmental machinery 
of China have endured for five thousand years, while the 
thrones and kingdoms of the rest of the world have been 
overturned and rebuilt again and again to perish. 

The causes which have produced such exceptional 
stability deserve more than the passing notice our limits 
will allow. An ingrained and constantly inculcated rev- 
erence for the past, has exerted a potent influence. Re- 
spect for everything old because it is old, is carried to 
such an exaggerated degree that progress is deemed the 
most abhorrent evil, and is made an impossibility. The 
worship of ancestors, performed every day on house- 
hold shrines by the pious Chinaman, is a constant re- 
minder of his duty and danger. The writings of their 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 185 

great philosophers, however they may differ in other par- 
ticulars, are thoroughly in accord with regard to the duty 
of veneration and obedience. 

This constantly enforced passiveness has produced in 
the native character, a pitiable servility which, while it 
sometimes provokes the inj ustice and tyranny of foreigners, 
more often excites a smile. Mr. Coffin relates that he 
has seen a feeble, withered old hag march boldly into a 
crowd of men and after soundly slapping one of them on 
the face, walk off leading him by the ear ! The by- 
standers quietly acquiesced without a laugh or a murmur, 
for was she not his mother, and aged ? 

An oppressive police surveillance and a constant re- 
sort to the bamboo scourge in public places, adds to these 
repressing and degrading influences. Public meetings 
are not permitted except by order of the government, and 
the entire policy is to destroy individual independence, 
for the public welfare. 

Their early chiefs who combined the office of ruler, 
benefactor and teacher, taught the people to look up to 
Tien, the sky, as a deity, but probably they looked be- 
yond, for Tien is spoken of as having omnipotence, om- 
niscience, and ubiquity, he is without substance or di- 
mension ; one of his names signifies the Root and 
Branch, another, The First and Last. 

Reverence and honor to the Supreme Deity as dic- 
tated by conscience was recommended, and an annual 
ceremony of sacrifice and prayer was performed by the 
chief. The Chinese have never attempted any repre- 
sentation of the form of Deity. 

Spiritism was early introduced by the worship of 
the Six Honored Ones, supposed to preside over the 



186 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

elements of nature, as well as ancestral worship particu- 
larly that of departed emperors. 

Immortality was inferable from, this worship, but it 
was not distinctly taught. Heaven for the good was im- 
plied, but no hint was given as to the condition of the 
wicked after death. The Inferno of Buddhism is not of 
Chinese origin, but was taken from Brahminism. 

An ancient Chinese book says : " The first happiness 
is long life, the second is riches, the third a sound body 
and serenity of mind, the fourth love of virtue, the fifth 
doing and receiving to the end the will of heaven/' 
The only reward to be expected for the practice of 
virtue, is some benefit to future generations, the enrich- 
ing of a son or grandson. Magic and divination have 
always been practised, the most frivolous rites are per- 
formed with the hope of penetrating futurity. These 
ideas pervade and color all Chinese philosophy and re- 
ligion. 

Their cosmogony, like that of other nations, gives 
evidence of primitive tradition ; one of their authors says ; 
" Heaven was formless, utter chaos, the whole mass was 
confusion. The refined particles united first, the thick 
and heavy more slowly. .Heaven thus came into exist- 
ence first and earth afterwards. From their subtle 
essence, the dual principal of Yang and Yin, male and 
female were produced and the putting forth of their en- 
ergies gave birth to all the products of the earth. 

The masses believe that Pwanku, a giant produced by 
the chaotic elements, labored for eighteen thousand years 
to chisel out a world from granite floating through space. 
The dragon, the phoenix, and unicorn were his com- 
panions, monsters, evidently, of the Mesozoic age. He 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 187 

grew six feet every day, and at death his body was trans- 
formed into the covering of the granite-frame his labor 
had finished. This giant resembles the Scandinavian 
Bur and Lithuanian Wandu. After Pwanku, three rulers 
of monstrous form succeeded. Their names, the Celes- 
tial, Terrestrial, and Human, indicate the powers of 
nature. 

The oldest philosophy is Taoism, of which Lao-tse 
(the Old Philosopher) is the exponent. He is accused of 
atheism, but though he has an indefinite idea of a per- 
sonal deity, he reaches towards God. 

" There is," says Lao-tse, " an infinite Being, who 
existed before heaven or earth. How calm it is ! How 
free ! It lives alone and changes not. It moves every- 
where, but never suffers. We may look upon it as the 
Mother of the Universe ! I know not its name, but to 
give it a title I call it Tao, The Way." After endless 
evolutions and involutions, Tao appeared as Nonentity, 
then as Entity, fell into the open mouth of a sleeping 
virgin, and after eighty-one years was born, an old man. 

"Tao, The Way," " The First and Last," "The Root 
and Branch." When Jesus Christ used the same terms 
in speaking of himself, they were addressed to others 
than the few Jews who stood around him. Born in an 
obscure Judean village, he had never seen Chinese phi- 
losophies. "Whence had this man such wisdom, having 
never been taught I " 

Lao-tse teaches a beautiful morality. Some of his 
maxims are worth remembering. " The Tao of heaven 
does not strive, yet conquers ; does not speak, yet an- 
swers ; is slack, yet plans well." 

" Recompense injury with kindness." 



188 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

" Who is the man that having a surplus, serves the 
world with it ? It is he only who has Tao." 

"The sage does not lay up treasures, the more he 
serves others the more he has of his own." 

" If any man acts the executioners part, I say it is 
hewing out the Great Architect's work for him, and such 
a man rarely fails to cut his fingers." 

The philosophy of Lao-tse is like that of all ancient 
Orientals, abstract, obscure, and incomprehensible to our 
methods of thought. 

" The Tao is invisible, it returns into Not Being." 

" Being and Not Being are born of each other." 

" Not to act is the essence of all power." 

The philosophers of Greece and Germany have 
merely reproduced the ideas of Ancient India and China. 
The atheism of all rests upon the same foundation, the 
theory that creation is controlled by a principle, and not 
a personal Deity ; pardonable, perhaps, in men who had 
so little of history and revelation to guide them, but more 
than inexcusable in this advanced age of knowledge. 

The atheism of the Chinese philosophers and of the 
Buddha is peculiar to Turanian methods of thought, and 
forms one proof of the Scythian origin of the Chinese 
nation. Though Gotama was himself of Aryan stock, 
he engrafted many popular Turanian ideas upon his new 
system, which was in part the secret of its wonderful 
popularity and success both in India and the Chinese 
empire. 

Mr. F. Clarke says : " The morality of the Buddha is 
generous, benevolent, humane, while that of Lao-tse is 
altogether selfish. Buddhism seeks to help others, while 
Taoism seeks its own for the sake of power." But they 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 189 

are alike selfish. Taoism seeks for power, Buddhism 
does all to obtain merit, the end sought by both is a state 
of bliss, called by one Tao, and the other Nervana. 

Of course these abstruse metaphysics were beyond the 
comprehension of the masses, who adopted the morality, 
ethics and theory of reward and punishment, superadding 
magic, divination, and gross superstition. 

A master greater than Lao-tse was born 549 B. C, 
Confucius, or Choo-tse, esteemed the greatest man China 
has ever produced. His father, prime minister of the 
kingdom of Loo, died while he was young, and he 
was educated by his mother and grandfather. A 
grave and precocious child, he was remarkable for 
reverence of his parents and the ancient sages. His 
early studies were history, morals, and politics. He 
married at nineteen, but after the birth of a son, he be- 
came divorced, and devoted himself to study. He was 
shortly after appointed to the office of superintendent of 
cattle, a position which he filled with so much success 
that he was soon promoted to be the Distributor of Grain. 
Here, as in the office he had held previously, great en- 
ergy, efficiency and probity marked his career. He ad- 
vanced rapidly in the confidence of his prince, and it 
was anticipated he would be made prime-minister. But 
successful virtue is always the mark for envy and detrac- 
tion, his corrupt colleagues organized a conspiracy against 
him, which for the time drove him from power. For eight 
years he wandered through the empire, teaching and ex- 
horting all who would listen to him. At the end of this 
time the true character of his maligners was proved, the 
prince recalled him, and gave him the office of prime 
minister, with almost absolute power. This he exerted 



190 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

for the great advancement and prosperity of the kingdom, 
taking kind care of the people, regulating the finances, 
commerce and public works ; repressing injustice, im- 
morality and abuses, sometimes with a stern policy ; 
freeing the mountains of robbers, which had long been 
the terror of the land, and making the province of Loo 
the model of the empire. Neighboring princes could not 
endure this condition of a court which was such a con- 
trast and reproach to their own. Knowing the weakness 
of the Prince of Loo, they educated and instructed some 
beautiful courtezans and sent them as a present to the 
voluptuous sovereign. These dissolute women soon 
raised a strong conspiracy against the upright moralist 
and statesman, and at the age of fifty-seven he was again 
a wanderer, his enemies pursuing him relentlessly for 
twelve years, intent upon taking his life. He was pre- 
served by concealment and disguise till his enemies were 
exhausted or dead. 

" Man is immortal till his work is done." 

The great work of Confucius was at this time scarce- 
ly begun. His teachings and lovely character drew 
to him thousands of admirers and imitators. Seventy- 
two disciples attached themselves to him, but only 
ten, he said, were "truly wise." With these last he 
retired to a peaceful valley, where he devoted his 
time to the labor of collecting and annotating all the 
ancient sacred writings of the Chinese, assisted by his 
devoted disciples. He passed the remainder of his 
eventful life tranquilly, and died at the age of seventy- 
three. Feeling death approach, he sighed, with a touch 
of poetry rare in Chinese character, " The great moun- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 191 

tain is broken ; the strong beam is thrown down, the 
wise man has decayed." One of his disciples asked him 
just before he died, if sacrifice should then be offered? 
Confucius replied, " I have already prayed." 

Thus lived and died this wonderful man ; humane, 
humble, and just; lightly prized during his life, but 
whose character and writings have impressed the minds 
of half the whole human family for twenty-three hundred 
years. He knew not God, perhaps, but God knew him. 
When one of his disciples lamented that he was not 
better known and appreciated, Confucius said, " Heaven 
knows me." His patient uncertainty and loving human- 
ity remind us of a beautiful poem of Leigh Hunt's, which 
might have been written for Confucius. 

" Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase) 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw within the moonlight of his room, 
Making it rich like as a lily bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold. 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the presence in the room he said, 

* What writest thou ? ' The vision raised its head, 
And with a look made all of sweet accord, 
Answered, < The names of those that love the Lord.' 

* And is mine one ? ' said Abou. i Nay, not so,' 
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 
But cheerily still, * I pray thee, then, 

Write me as one who loves his fellow men.' 

The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 

He came again with a great wakening light, 

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed, 

And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest." 

Confucius was no impostor, he never pretended, to 
inspiration ; but in such exalted natures there is almost 



102 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



always a prophetic foresight, and Confucius certainly 
possessed it. When lamenting the imperfections of his 
own character and that of the men around him, he said, 
"lama transmitter, I only hand on, the true saint will 
arise in the west." 

His system can hardly be called a religion. He ac- 
knowledged that he knew very little concerning the gods, 
they were above the comprehension of men. The busi- 
ness of man was to do his duty to his fellow man, to the 
state, and to his departed ancestors, rather than to attempt 
the worship of unknown spirits. " Not knowing of life," 
said he, " what can we know of death ? " This reticence 
of the great master with regard to a higher power and 
the future state of the soul, has left a melancholy doubt 
and obscurity upon the Chinese mind. 

His moral wisdom is remarkably clear and pure, and 
will compare favorably with that of any western moralist 
even in the latest times. His ideas are expressed in short, 
terse, didactic sentences, impressive and easily remem- 
bered. They are found throughout China, in the form 
of inscriptions on paper or tablets, on the walls of all the 
temples, dwelling houses, shops and public buildings. A 
few are selected : 

" If what we see is doubtful, how can we believe what 
is spoken behind the back ? " 

" Every man sees the faults of others, but cannot dis- 
cover his own." 

" If the blind lead the blind, both will go into the 

pit." 

" A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man 
perfected without trials." 

" Man contrives, but heaven decrees." 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 193 

" Great humility is great honor." 

" It is only the naked who fear the light." 

" To see what is right and not to do it is a want of 
courage." 

" What I do not wish men to do to me, I also wish 
not to do to men." 

" If my mind is not engaged in worship, it is as though 
I worshipped not." 

" Riches and honor acquired by unrighteousness are 
as a floating cloud." 

Once, when Confucius was sick, Tsze Loo told him 
that prayers had been made to the spirits of the upper 
and lower world. He said, " My praying has been for a 
long time." 

" The five great relations are those that exist between 
emperor and people, father and son, husband and wife, 
between brothers, and between friends. The five virtues 
are Benevolence, Righteousness, Politeness, Wisdom, and 
Sincerity." 

The writings of Confucius and his disciples form the 
standard literature of China. 

The sacred writings consist of the Classics and the 
Four Books. The first of the Classics are histories, the 
third is a book of Odes many of them composed by Con- 
fucius, and all of a moral character. The fourth is a 
book of ceremonies, in which the entire etiquette and 
rules of daily life are minutely prescribed, and to the in- 
fluence of which, no doubt, the fixedness of Chinese 
custom is to be attributed. The fifth Classic is a history 
of the Kingdom of Loo, and an exposition of the political 
system, the last work of this great master. 

The four Books compiled by the disciples of the 

13 



194 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

revered sage, contain his system of Ethics, doctrines and 
family sayings. 

Confucius is worshipped according to the Chinese 
idea. Sixteen hundred and sixty temples have been 
erected to his memory. One of these covers ten acres 
of ground. Two festivals in his honor are held annually, 
at which seventy thousand animals are sacrificed and 
twenty thousand pieces of silk are burnt. The Emperor 
officiates as high priest upon these occasions. The 
service is like that performed in every Chinese house. 
A tablet is erected over an altar on which is inscribed 
the name and a few words of praise. The gifts are laid 
upon the altar with sweet smelling gums and incense 
sticks, flowers and fruit. The whole is then consumed 
by fire ; a prayer or invocation or hymn closes the 
service. Except upon these occasions, this system is 
without a priest or public worship. 

The family of Confucius, now numbering seventy 
thousand males, are the only hereditary aristocracy in 
the realm. An aristocracy of intellect and learning exists, 
elected from successful competitors, in colleges where 
the sacred books are studied. The discipline and study 
is severe, the literary standard, though confined to the 
works of Confucius and his disciples, is high. No person 
can fill a government office till he has passed a satisfac- 
tory examination, which is conducted in a just and im- 
partial manner. 

Buddhism was introduced into China soon after the 
death of its founder, by missionaries who fondly believed 
it would become universal. Its gentle, humane, atheistic 
doctrines fell into genial soil, and it became one of the 
state religions in the first century of the Christian era. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 195 

The religious ideas of the Chinese prevail in Japan, 
Thibet and Siam, whose people bear marks of a common 
origin. The remains of another and a very ancient re- 
ligion are found in these countries called the Sintoo, 
very probably the original faith as the name would seem 
to imply. This almost obsolete religion, from what can be 
learned of it, was purer than any of the later forms. A 
remarkable feature was the distinct enunciation of the 
doctrine of the immortality of the soul and future reward 
and punishment. 

The funeral rites of the Sintoo worshippers of Japan 
are very beautiful. " The most charming spots on the 
hill sides are selected for places of sepulture. The graves 
are carefully tended. At sunset a funeral procession in 
white robes, their only color for mourning, winds up the 
narrow path bearing the body of the dead, if a wife, she 
is wrapped in her bridal veil, which has been preserved 
for a shroud. If a husband or wife is to be buried, space 
is always left in the cemetery for the surviving partner, 
two pieces of bamboo are placed before the grave to hold 
flowers which are brought fresh every morning during 
the period of mourning. At this time the higher classes 
never appear in public, except when decorating the graves 
with flowers. They make no feasts and entertain no 
company till the mourning period is over." Mr. Coffin 
adds, " A thousand years before Plato discoursed upon 
the immortality of the soul, the philosophers of Japan 
talked of a future life. Conscience had entered their 
philosophy. Death was not a sleep ; they had ' That 
dread of something after death/ In the month of 
August, the spirits of the dead are supposed to revisit 



196 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

the earth. Tombs, trees, gardens, and houses are illum- 
inated with lanterns of every hue. It is a joyful night — 

" Then the forms of the departed 
Enter at the open door." 

On the second evening the spirits return to the 
shadowy land which lies somewhere beyond the sea. 
With much ceremony, little paper boats are borne to the 
sea side, lighted tapers placed within and the tiny craft 
launched upon the boundless sea." 

The Chinese on the contrary have no certainty about 
the future or the other world. They believe the spirits 
of the dead are always near, with all their former interests 
and wants, with no power to provide for themselves. 
This compels an onerous and expensive service, dictated 
no doub't by affection in case of recent bereavement, but 
mostly by a sense of duty and fear. Food and clothing 
must be offered, and as they cannot be used by spirits in 
their original form, they must be consumed by fire and 
made etherial. There are three festivals annually, at 
which offerings are made for the dead who have no living 
relatives ; in this way many millions of dollars are wasted. 

The air is peopled by invisible spirits, they are mis- 
chievous and must be propitiated. It is supposed that 
they only move directly north and south, so for the pro- 
tection of the living against their restless encroachments, 
walls and fences running east and west are erected, often 
in the most inconvenient places. Baskets are also hung 
out of open windows on poles to catch the spirits who 
attempt to enter. Superstitious fear hangs like a pall 
over the entire land, high and low are its passive victims. 

China is oppressed as with a perpetual nightmare. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 197 



Innovation is the deadliest sin ; interference with the 
past would bring legions of enraged spirits to execute ven- 
geance. Chained to the dead past, filled with superstitious 
terror, oppressed by the iron hand of a government 
which in spite of professions to the contrary is abusive 
and exacting, ever in fear of the public bastinado, the 
stocks, decapitation, or more horrible still, the order to 
perform the dreaded Hari Kari, (that is cutting open 
one's own bowels,) with no incentive to virtue but the 
hope of conferring some benefit upon posterity, no 
wonder that hope, courage and principle give way. Con- 
fucius mournfully exclaimed in in his old age, " A per- 
fect man have I not found, I myself have not attained 
perfection. ,, 

The subservient morality, the submissive veneration 
for the Emperor and ancestors, so apparent in the 
Chinese character are all superficial. Hypocrisy, 
jealousy and suspicion rankle beneath the outward cloak 
of virtue, repose degenerates into stagnation, and secret 
vice, gambling, licentiousness, and opium intoxication are 
the mistaken efforts of hopeless human nature to keep 
alive the consciousness of a benumbed vitality, but in the 
train of these degrading passions and appetites, stalk 
ever the fearful spectres, satiety, disease and despair. 

The petty exactions, burdens and abuses of everyday 
life, the craving of base appetites which have lost their 
power of gratification, the perpetual shadow of gloomy 
superstition and uncertainty with regard to the future, 
render life intolerable, the instinct of selfpreservation is 
lost and relief is sought from hopeless ill by self destruc- 
tion. In no other country is there such a terrible pre- 
valence of suicide. 



198 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

In writing of China, the mind assumes a grey mono- 
tone, the style becomes prosaic, every thought and word 
is direct and common place. Fancy falls asleep and 
poetry dies. In Chinese literature, there is nothing that 
deserves the name of poetry, every attempt is exaggera- 
tion and burlesque. The music of the Chinese, as well 
as the dancing, is of the most unattractive character, and 
is executed by hired performers : manly sports which 
might rouse their lethargic natures are considered relics 
of barbarism and unfit for Celestials. In dull prescribed 
routine, life drags its mournful, melancholy way. 



" Slumber is there, but not of rest.' 



The Chinese emigrants who are established in Cali- 
fornia and other of the States, are valuable laborers, 
being quiet, industrious, peaceable and devoted to their 
employers. They scrupulously abstain from defrauding 
those who hire them, but have been known to use their 
familiar acquaintance with buildings where they have 
been employed, for purposes of wholesale robbery, the 
very night after they were discharged. They are patient 
and loyal, but revengeful. The Chinese have been cruelly 
abused by the English in their own country, as also 
by Americans in California, the laws of that State afford- 
ing them very little protection. Their only wish and 
endeavor is to control their gambling propensities suf. 
ficiently to get money wherewith they can return to 
" the land of flowers " and die. 

Is there no hope for this great people ? Must they 
forever grope and shiver by the pale taper of Confucean 
morality ? Has the Saviour, who called himself " The 
Way," forgotten those who are seeking the Tao ? 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. . 199 

Keeping in mincTthe fact that the real name of China 
is Sin, we will read an old prophecy which is supposed to 
refer to that land. In speaking of those who will accept 
the salvation of the Messiah, it is said, " Behold these 
shall come from far, and lo ! these from the north and 
from the west and these from the land of Sinim ! " 

Let us join with the prophet when he triumphantly 
adds " Sing oh heavens, be joyful oh earth, break forth into 
singing oh mountains, for the Lord hath comforted His 
people and will have mercy on His afflicted ! " Is. xlix, 

i3« 



CHAPTER VIII. 
MEDO-PERSIA AND ITS RELIGION. 

Mazdao : " I am who I am." 

OUR present subject is in striking contrast to dull, 
prosaic, monotonous China— Persia ! the very name 
calls up images of poetry and passion ! Who was not 
with the Arabian Nights, or Lalla Rookh, for a com- 
panion, floated away to that land of dream and romance ! 
Vales of Cashmere and Shiraz! where the fragrance of 
musk and amber, jessamine and roses, mingle with the 
song of the nightingale. Such loveliness inspired the 
genius of Hafiz, Saadi, and Ferdusi in ages long gone by. 

But how changed is the Persia of to-day ! Cold and 
barren plateaus, (though still there are warm and lovely 
valleys), dirty, ill built cities, a servile, degraded people, 
a dwindling population, retrogressive government, decay- 
ing religion and narrowing territory, this is all that re- 
mains of an empire that once shook the earth with the 
tread of her armies and conquered the world. While its 
neighbor, China, has calmly plodded on, passionless and 
changeless, during millenniums, Persia, like a meteor, 
rushed through a brief career of glory, leaving nothing 
but its embers scattered on the shores of Time. It is for 
the thoughtful enquirer to ascertain the causes which 
have produced such opposite results. 

Religion, philosophy, and ethics are the heart, brain, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 201 

and nervous force of the body politic. In the constitution 
of China we found a sluggish torpor, conducive to extreme 
longevity ; in that of ancient Iran we shall discover a 
restless activity, which, like a flame, its symbol, soon con- 
sumed the national vitality. 

Preliminary to this inquiry we will trace its origin and 
briefly review its early history. 

Subsequent to the emigration of the Hamites and 
Turanians (it is impossible to determine how long), a 
similar impulse was given to others of the Japhetic tribes, 
who had till then remained crowded in their early homes. 
At this time the family of Madai, third son of Japhet 
from whom Media takes its name, came down to the more 
genial plains of ancient Bactria. 

The immediate cause of this sudden impulse of emi- 
gration was apparently one of those great cosmical 
changes which have at times taken place upon the sur- 
face of the globe. The first chapter of a very ancient 
book, called the Vendidad, speaks of the country as once 
a region of delight, created by Ormazd, the beneficent 
deity, and adds, "That Evil Being, Ahriman, full of 
death, created a mighty serpent and winter, the work 
of the Devas. Ten months of winter were there and 
two of summer. Cold as to water, cold as to earth, 
cold as to trees. There is the heart of winter, there 
all around falls deep snow, there is the worst of evils." 
The " mighty serpent " is probably the " Ferusharaba" 
of which Justin speaks. The statement that such a 
terrible change took place in the genial valley of the 
Aryas is corroborated by the fact that, as late as 1803, 
on the river Lena, in Siberia, the body of a hairy ele- 
phant was loosened from the ice, where it had lain for 



202 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

ages, its flesh in such a state of preservation that it was 
greedily eaten by the wolves. Many similar remains 
have since been found in this region, where, no doubt, 
these monstrous beasts once roamed, and sustained their 
huge frames upon a tropical vegetation. The pious Zend 
writers ascribe this change to the will of Ormazd, who, they 
say, has made new homes for the people, and by this ter- 
rible catastrophe, forced emigration, otherwise all human 
beings would have crowded into this delightful valley. 

When they arrived on the plains of Cambodia they 
encountered a black population, whom they describe as 
having short curling hair. They subdued these people, 
and became their masters. By a comparison of the roots 
of words common to the great Aryan or Iranian family, 
now classified as the Indo-European, of which the Zend, 
or Medean, and the Sanscrit, or Hindoo, are the oldest, 
we find that at this period these tribes all spoke one lan- 
guage. Comparative philology shows that they under- 
stood agriculture, and were rich in flocks and herds ; they 
manufactured weapons of war, and articles in gold, silver, 
and bronze ; they built houses, wagons, and small boats ; 
they used salt, flour, and meat. Domestic relations were 
respected, they were monogamists, daughters and wives 
were loved and cherished. 

Their name, Iran or Aryan, implies land owners or 
honorable men. They were in character noble, being 
temperate, active, hardy, free and pure. 

Society was divided into four classes, warriors, priests, 
agriculturists and shepherds. 

At this period the early Vedas and the Gathas were 
composed, hymns of praise and prayer, which seem to 
glow in the rosy light and dewy sparkle of the world's 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 203 

dawn, " Where there is eternal light ; in the world where 
the sun is placed, in that immortal, imperishable world 
place me, O Soma ! where life is free, in the third heaven 
of heavens, where worlds are radiant, there make me 
immortal." 

Their religion was simple monotheism, more perfect, 
spiritual and exalted than that of any ancient people. 
The name of the deity was Mazdao, meaning " I am w r ho 
I am," apparently identical with the Jehovah of Moses, 
" I am that I am." 

The dawn of Medo-Persian history is clouded by the 
mists of mythology. Through gaps in the heavy fog we 
perceive a few prominent figures moving in stately or 
terrible show. The first to which name is given is 
Djimshid, which may be either an eminent chief or a dy- 
nasty. Under this government great advances were made 
in civilization. Cities and temples begin to gleam in the 
morning light, though the ancient writers complain that 
the lustre of this era is tarnished by the introduction of 
idolatry. Perhaps this is the "mighty serpent" of the 
Vendidad, for the next figure which looms up before us, 
distorted and terrible, is the form of a monster, called 
Zohak, from whose shoulders two dreadful serpents grew, 
whose hunger could be appeased only by the brains of 
freshly slaughtered human victims. The myth of Zohak 
evidently refers to the conquest of Iran by invaders, who 
brought with them serpent worship and human sacrifice. 
The independent spirit of the Iranians soon revolted 
against this usurpation. The immediate occasion of the 
revolt is thus told in The Ancient History of the East : 

" There was at Ispahan a man who had two young 
sons, very handsome in the face, and endowed with all 



204 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

natural good gifts. One day these young men were 
seized without the knowledge of the father or the family, 
and killed, to feed with their brains the serpent of Zohak. 
The fathers name was Caveh, he was a blacksmith, and 
was working at his forge in front of his house when he 
was told that his sons had been taken and put to death. 
He at once left his forge, and in his distress traversed 
the city, carrying the leather apron with which smiths 
protect their clothes from the fire. His cries and lamen- 
tations resounded through the city, and drew a large crowd 
of men around him. The inhabitants of Ispahan, tired 
of the cruelty of Zohak, rose in insurrection with Caveh, 
the smith, at their head, and hoisted the leathern apron 
upon a pole as their standard." The revolt was success- 
ful. Zohak was conquered, the foreigners were driven 
out, and a grandson of Djimshid, Ferudin, was placed 
upon the throne by Caveh, the leader of the rebellion. 
The leathern apron of the blacksmith became the palla- 
dium of the nation and its religion, and ever afterwards, 
upon all the most solemn occasions when the king took 
the command, this apron, encrusted with gems, was 
brought out as the national standard. It was sacredly 
preserved till captured by the Mohammedans at the battle 
of Cadesia, in A. D. 641, when, after a panic and utter 
rout of the Persian army, this invaluable trophy and a 
famous silken carpet, flowered with precious stones, be- 
longing to the treasury of the effeminate Yezdegird, were 
cut up by order of the Caliph Omar, and divided among 
the followers of that fierce fanatic. 

The rebellion of Caveh was the beginning of the 
most tremendous struggle known in the history of the 
world. It is spoken of in the old Zend writings as a 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 205 

contest between hostile brothers Iran and Turan, synony- 
mes perhaps of Madai and Magog, both sons of Japhet, 
one party being worshippers of the true God, and the 
other worshippers of the serpent. Allusions to this 
terrific religious war are met with in all the myths of 
that most ancient era, sometimes it is referred to as a 
" war of the gods." Before its tremendous proportions 
modern warfare " pales its ineffectual fires : " it lasted 
according to different historians from eleven hundred to 
fifteen hundred years. Like the endless waves of a 
mighty ocean, the formidable Scythians dashed their 
innumerable hordes against the borders of the more 
noble nations — who struggled to repel them with varying 
success till at length they seem lost on the continents of 
Europe and America. Some scholars believe that this 
great religious war was confined to the Aryan family. 
Certainly a struggle did take place between the elemen- 
tal worshippers and the believers in Mazda, and was one 
cause of the emigration of that portion of the tribes 
which settled in Hindustan : — there may have been two 
wars of this character. 

In the early ages of this momentous period lived 
Zarathustra or Zoroaster as he was called by Greek 
writers, — the great . Persian reformer and apostle of the 
doctrine of Dualism. His era is very doubtful, scholars 
assigning him an antiquity varying from 6000 to 1 200 B.C. 

Very little has been preserved of the history of this 
wonderful man and everything related of his life is mixed 
with myth. Remarkable omens, it is said, attended his 
birth, which it is believed took place in Bactria during 
the reign of King Hystaspes. At an early age he with- 
drew to a cave in the mountains of Elburg where during 



206 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

» 

twenty years of pious meditation he received the sacred 
fire which was never to be extinguished, and was favored 
with revelations of the divine will from Ormazd (the 
supreme deity) which he recorded in a book called the 
Avesta or Living word. At the time of the Macedonian 
conquest of Persia, Alexander ordered the destruction of 
these writings and many volumes were thus lost. 

Zoroaster after receiving his divine mission repaired 
to the royal court which he soon converted by preaching 
and miracles, and the reformation spread rapidly through- 
out the kingdom. He was killed at the age of seventy- 
six during a Turanian invasion which resulted disas- 
trously to his party. 

The primitive religion of the Iranians had before the 
advent of Zoroaster become corrupted by Turanian and 
Chaldean association. The Medean priests, called the 
Magi or Great Ones, losing the spirituality of their fathers, 
had long practised star and fire worship, mixed with magic 
and divination. The enlightened soul of Zoroaster de- 
ploring this corruption of the old faith, wrought painfully 
amid the solitude of the mountains to solve the great 
problems of man's existence and his relation to his Maker. 
He perceived in all nature a constant antagonism and 
conflict. Night and day, darkness and light, sunshine and 
storm, cold and heat, alternately ruled. There were use- 
ful animals, ferocious beasts and deadly serpents— plants 
nourishing and delicious, and others noxious and poison- 
ous. But in the life and nature of man there was the most 
inexplicable and deplorable conflict. Pain and pleasure, 
sickness and health, joy and sorrow, sin and righteous- 
ness, good and evil fortune, life and death, forever striv- 
ing for mastery. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 207 

Unable to solve the dreadful mystery, impenetrable 
except by direct revelation, Zoroaster concluded that the 
world was controlled by two opposing principles or spiri- 
tual beings created by Ormazd the Eternal, who broods 
over and directs them both. 

The good spirit, or principle, was Ahura, the giver of 
breath. He was the king of light, the author of truth, 
love, beneficence and goodness, and the creator of the 
world. The evil spirit was Ahriman, lord of darkness and 
sin. 

The Eternal decreed that the world which Ahura was 
to create should last twelve thousand years, which time 
should be divided into four periods : the first three thou- 
sand years should be occupied by the work of creation ; the 
next period was to be a golden age, when man should live 
innocent and happy ; in the third Ahriman should begin 
and increase his terrible destruction ; in the fourth Ahura 
would slowly gain ascendancy, and after all things were 
purified by a general conflagration, he should reign alone 
in a recreated, holy world. 

According to this decree Ahura began his beneficent 
work by the creation of a vast number of spirits — six 
of superior power to assist him in his labors — beneath 
them others who should preserve the balance of the uni- 
verse ; then others still, called Fervers, who should watch 
all terrestrial objects, and of whom one was to be attached 
to, or guardian over every human being. These Fervers 
could be made great and powerful by the purity and holi- 
ness of their human counterparts. Ahura also made in- 
numerable genii to assist the angels and men. For all 
this creation the wicked Ahriman made deadly and evil 
duplicates, with these he endeavored to rise from his dark 



208 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

abyss to wage a war, but fell back blinded by the radiant 
glory of Ahura 

Then with the aid of the Amshapands, good spirits, 
Ahura began the creation of the world. The work was 
done in six gahanbars, or epochs of time, unequal in 
length. In the first epoch Ahura says, "I made the 
heavens'' ; in the second, " I made the waters " ; in the 
third, " the earth " ; in the fourth, " the trees " ; in the 
fifth, " the animals " ; and in the sixth, " I have made 
man." 

The Bundelush says, " Meshia and Meshiana, the first 
man and woman were pure and happy, and heaven was 
their destiny, but Ahriman, full of hatred and rage, know- 
ing that his hour had come, threw himself upon the earth 
in the form of a serpent, and defiled everything existing 
upon it, even pure fire he tainted with vapor and smoke. 
With the help of the Devas, an army of evil spirits which he 
had created for this very work, he filled the earth with un- 
clean animals and poisonous plants. He then addressed 
himself to the human pair, who before this had worshipped 
Ormazd and thanked him for all good things, but now says 
the old book, " the Lie entered their thoughts and altered 
their disposition, and said to them, ' It is Ahriman who has 
given you all things/ By believing this lie they both be- 
came Darvands, and their souls will be in the infernal re- 
gions until the resurrection of the body. Then the 
Deva who told this lie became more bold and offered 
them fruit, which they ate and became subject to innumer- 
able ills, and all their blessings vanished but one." 

Thus man is subjected to sin and its consequences. 
He stands between the two worlds of light and darkness, 
left to his own free will he would honor and love Ahura, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 209 

and assist him to fight Ahriman, but the Devas are near 
him night and day endeavoring to drag him down to 
darkness ; to aid him in his dangerous struggle Ormazd 
revealed his will to Zoroaster, and if he obeys his pre- 
cepts, the Devas lose their power. The holy law was 
summed up in this command, " Think purely, speak pure- 
ly, act purely." 

The doctrine of future reward and punishment is 
clearly taught. Ahura has built a bridge from this world 
to the world of good spirits, which passes directly over the 
abyss Duyahk. Those who have obeyed the laws of 
Ormazd during life are called for by the good spirits on the 
fourth morning after death, and by them conducted safely 
over the dreaded bridge Chinevet, and enter the eternal 
world, where seated on golden thrones they participate in 
the enjoyments of heaven — but the wicked, unable to pass 
the terrible pathway, fall through and are dragged by 
the Devas into the dreadful abyss. Towards the close of 
the twelve thousand years Ormazd will send his prophet 
Sosioch, by whose influence the world will be converted 
- — the dead will be raised and their bodies renovated. 
Then Ahriman in his fury will cause one of his comets to 
break away from its watchman, the moon, and plunge 
itself upon the earth. A general conflagration will im- 
mediately ensue, but the results will be very different 
from that which Ahriman designs, for the whole earth 
fused by the great heat into melted iron, will run down 
into the abyss Duyahk, and all the souls which the Evil 
One has there imprisoned will pass through it. To the 
righteous it will feel like warm milk,^.nd they will rise to 
the regions of the just, but the sinners will be swept back 
into the burning gulf, where they will remain till all sin 

T 4 



210 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

shall be purged away and evil destroyed, then a beautiful 
and perfect world, shall arise from the ashes, righteous 
and eternal. 

The two most important books of the Avesta still re- 
maining are the Vendidad and the Yagna ; the first is a 
moral and ceremonial code, teaching man that he should 
avoid all sin and impurity, and showing how when com- 
mitted, it may be expiated. 

The Yagna is a liturgy, being entirely composed of 
prayers and hymns, which though mixed with invoca- 
tions to heavenly spirits and many puerilities, always 
places Ahura Mazda as Supreme. 

" In the name of God, giver, forgiver, rich in love, 
praise be to the name of Ormazd, the God with the 
name," " Who always was, always is, and always will be." 
The heavenly among the heavenly with the name. 
" From whom alone is derived rule." " Ormazd is the 
greatest ruler, mighty, wise, creator, supporter, refuge, 
defender, completer of good works, overseer, pure, good 
and just." It is then added " all good do I accept at 
thy command, oh God, and think, speak and do it. I 
believe in the pure law : by every good work seek I 
forgiveness for all sins. I keep myself pure for the 
serviceable work, and abstain from the unprofitable. 
I keep pure the six powers, thought, speech, work, 
memory, mind and understanding. According to thy 
will, I am able to accomplish, Oh ! accomplisher of 
good, thy honor with good thoughts, good words, and 
good works." " I have entrusted my soul to Heaven " 
says Zoroaster " I will teach what is pure so long as I 
can. Teach thou me, Ahura, out of thyself from heaven, 
by thy mouth, whereby the world first arose." I wor- 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 211 

ship and adore the Creator of all things full of light. I 
invoke thee, oh Fire ! thou son of Ormazd, most rapid of 
the immortals. " 

Zoroaster does not pretend to be a prophet or 
mediator, but speaks of a being who holds this character 
as Mithra. He is the guardian of men during their lives 
and their judge after death. He is called " the victori- 
ous " and it was he who drove Ahriman out of heaven. 
" I invoke Mithra the lofty, the immortal, the pure, the 
sun, the ruler, the quick horse, the eye of Ormazd." 
When Ormazd gave to Zoroaster the sacred fire to burn 
continually in the temples it was with these instructions. 
" Tell the nations my light is hidden under all that shines. 
Turn towards the Light and Ahriman will fly." This 
command was for ages faithfully observed ; the Persians 
often protected the sacred fire at the expense of their 
lives. In consequence of this sensitive veneration of the 
element, they were unjustly called Fire worshippers 
and their sacred edifices Fire Temples. Ormazd was 
sometimes represented by fire, because that was of all 
elements the most etherial and pure. Idolatry was held 
in abhorrence and images were not allowed. The 
religious service and ceremonial were exceedingly 
simple, consisting of prayers and hymns, the preservation 
of the sacred fire and the pouring out libations of the 
Homa, an intoxicating drink made from an acid plant. 
This ceremony degenerated in later ages into system- 
atic intoxication. There were few blood sacrifices, 
horses being the favorite offerings upon such occasions. 
Animals were rarely killed, even for food. 

The priests performed these services in the open air 
or in temples built on lofty mountains where the sacred 



212 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

fire was kept constantly burning. The dead were left to 
be devoured by wild beasts as it was supposed that any 
of the elements would be polluted if corpses were con- 
signed to them. 

More than two thousand years after Zoroaster had 
written and preached the doctrines of the Avesta and 
had prophesied that 'Sosioch would come and convert the 
world, some of the Great Ones of this priestly order 
always gazing at the heavenly bodies, were attracted as 
is believed, by the extraordinary and unexampled con- 
junction of the most brilliant planets Jupiter, Venus, and 
Mars in the form of a magnificent star. Believing that 
this remarkable appearance of the heavenly bodies, indi- 
cated the advent of the expected Saviour, they travelled 
westward for many weeks guided by the declining posi- 
tion of the star till at last they found the wonderful 
child, a helpless infant cradled by his humble parents 
in the manger of a caravansary. Nothing daunted by 
these humiliating circumstances, they fell prostrate before 
him and offered their costly gifts and devout adoration 
Let the faith of the Magi shame our unbelief and apathy. 

The teachings of the Persian sacred books are in 
many particulars very much like those of our own scrip- 
tures. Their ideas of the Creation, the Fall, the Deluge, 
the coming of a Saviour, future reward and punishment, 
the destruction of the earth by fire and its recreation 
into a world of happiness and holiness are all very 
similar to those of the Bible. It is difficult for the 
human mind to conceive creation by the simple operation 
of natural forces and the Persians, in common with other 
nations, believed it was effected by means of subordinate 
deities. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 213 

The Zoroastrian oracles thus explain: 

" Far in the whole world shineth a Triad over which a Monad 

rules. 
All things are governed in the bosom of this Triad : 
The Father mingled every spirit from this Triad 
All things are the progeny of one fire : 
The Father perfected all things and delivered them over 
To the Second Mind, whom all nations of men call the first." 

The radical morality of this faith, its commendation 
of diligence in business and the exercise of the social 
affections, exhibit the spirit of the New Testament. 

Its disciples were to fight evil in every form thus 
assisting Ormazd in his good work. A perfect horror is 
expressed of impurity and lying. The moral code is of 
the greatest delicacy though there is no shade of asceti- 
cism ; material pleasures are allowed ; celibacy and fast- 
ing are forbidden and good health is believed to conduce 
to piety and holiness. The accumulation of property 
and enjoyment of domestic pleasures are commended. 
" He is a holy man/' says Ahura, " who has built a habita- 
tion on the earth in which he maintains his fire, his 
cattle, his wife, his children, his flocks and herds. He 
who makes the earth produce barley, who cultivates the 
fruit of the soil, cultivates purity : he advances the law 
of Ahura Mazda as much as if he had offered a hundred 
sacrifices " — a spirit totally opposite to that of the Hin- 
doo Aryans whom they reproached saying " your gods 
are our devils." 

This religion, though mixed with some errors and 
much childish superstition, a peculiarity of all natural 
faith, is the nearest approach to God's truth ever attained 
by mere human intelligence. We may even go further 



2i 4 FROM DA IVN TO SUNRISE. 

and say that its great teacher was illuminated if not 
inspired. He lived a thousand years as is supposed, 
before God revealed his name Jehovah to the great 
Hebrew prophet, and yet he called Him by that name. 
" I am who I am." 

Zoroaster failed in solving the great problem of 
the origin and existence of evil in the world, a secret 
that is still hidden in the Omniscient Mind. 

After the death of Zoroaster, many corruptions crept 
in and Mazcleism declined. When Cyrus the Great 
conquered Media, he introduced a thorough reform 
among the Magi, and this, like other and subsequent 
attempts, convulsed Persia by long and bloody wars. 

I would gladly trace the decline of Persian power 
and its peculiar religion, downward through the ages, 
but our limits will not permit. The greatest glory of 
the empire was attained under the kings Chorores ist 
and 2d, in the sixth century of our era. The latter of 
these sovereigns was most famous for his conquests and 
magnificence. His palaces, thrones, treasures, poets, 
musicians, fifty thousand Arab horses, three thousand 
beautiful women, the loveliest of all, Irene, who was a 
Greek and a christian, are the theme of a thousand songs. 

The Arabs conquered the degenerate successor of 
these great princes in the seventh century and an ex- 
haustive struggle for independence succeeded which 
lasted through many generations. 

The scene of Moore's charming poem " Lallah 
Rookh " is laid in Persia during this period. Hafed, the 
hero, the Persian patriot, in making himself known to 
the beautiful Mohammedan maiden whose love he had 
unintentionally won, says. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 215 

" Yes, I am of that impious race 

Those slaves of Fire, who morn and even 

Hail their creator's dwelling place 

Among the glorious lights of heaven. 

Yes, I am of that outcast few 

To Iran and to vengeance true, 

Who curse the hour your Arabs came 

To desolate our shrines of flame 

And swear before God's burning eye 

To break our country's chains or die." 

But though many brave patriots were doomed to die, 
the struggle went on till, after two hundred years of 
Mohammedan rule, the Persian ascendancy was restored 
under the leadership of a native adventurer, and is still 
maintained by Nassurredin the fourth Shah of the pre- 
sent dynasty. 

Zoroastrian religion has almost entirely died out in 
Persia but there are about one hundred thousand Parsees 
or Persians in the province of Bombay in India who still 
faithfully adhere to the old religion. It is supposed 
they came into India with Darius Hystaspes when he 
conquered that country. They are very rich and are 
the bankers of the east. They live in stately palaces 
constructed so that passages running in every direction, 
always catch the cooling breeze. Their gardens are 
magnificent, combining every flower and tree of the 
temperate zone with the luxuriant productions of the 
tropics. These men bear a high character for integrity, 
energy, and moral excellence. They are elegant, courte- 
ous and refined, and are admitted to the best society of 
Bombay and London. They strongly object to the 
name of Fire worshippers and though they turn their 
faces towards some luminous object when worshipping 



216 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

God, this is not considered indispensable. They confess 
to an indescribable awe regarding fire and abstain entirely 
from smoking, or extinguishing a light if they can avoid 
it. The devout Parsees pray sixteen times a day, their 
devotions are accompanied by some extraordinary and to 
us loathsome superstitions regarding the manure of cattle 
called the nirang which is supposed to be a purifier and 
is conscientiously applied to the person during religious 
ceremonies. These people who have for thousands of 
years clung to the truth and error of the great teacher 
despite the influence of Brahminism, Buddhism and 
Christianity by which they are surrounded, are generous, 
humane, and sympathetic. During our civil war, the 
Parsees of Bombay sent donations to the Sanitary Com- 
missions, thus signifying their sympathy with the cause 
of Freedom. 

They have lost the use and knowledge of the ancient 
Zend and repeat their prayers mechanically but have 
prepared in their present language a catechism for the 
instruction of children from which I will make an ex- 
tract. 

" We believe in only one God, and in none beside 
him. The God who created all things in the two worlds. 
Him we worship, we invoke, we adore ; whoever believes 
in any other God is an infidel and shall suffer the punish- 
ment of hell. Our God has neither face nor form, color 
nor fixed place. There is no other like him. Pie is 
himself singly such a glory that we cannot praise nor 
describe him, nor our mind comprehend him. Our 
religion is the worship of God brought by his true pro- 
phet Zoroaster, who recorded his religion in several books. 
These books teach us to know God, to know the exalted 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



217 



Zurthust (Zoroaster), as the true prophet, to believe the 
religion and the Avesta brought by him, to believe in the 
goodness of God, not to disobey any of the commands of 
our religion, to avoid evil deeds, to practise good deeds, 
to pray five times in a day, to believe in the reckoning 
and justice on the fourth morning after death, to hope 
for heaven, to fear hell, to consider doubtless the day of 
general destruction, and resurrection, to remember always 
that God has done what he willed, and shall do what he 
wills. To face some luminous object while worshipping 
God. Some deceivers with the view of acquiring exalta- 
tion have set themselves up as prophets and have persua- 
ded the ignorant that if they commit sin they can 
intercede and save them, and thus they are deceived but 
the wise among the people know the deceit. ,, 

These few worshippers are all that are left of the 
millions who by the light of Zoroaster's teaching have 
struggled through the darkness of sin toward eternal 
light and life. 

When there was so much truth why should this 
religion die ? I answer, the error only is dead, the vital 
germ endures though the husk is stripped away. Maz- 
deism still lives divested of error and we call it Chris- 
tianity : but in its original form with its two eternal, 
opposing principles, it was too exhaustive tor permanent 
continuance. Life with the pious Persians was a per- 
petual state of warfare, a never ending campaign ; the 
contending spirits were equally balanced, the soldier 
must be ever on guard, no relief, no hour of rest, no 
tower of refuge ; with tempests in the air, shudderings in 
the earth demoniac temptation in his soul, he fought on 
without help or any hope but the despairing one that 



2i 8 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



before his courage should fail, the fatal bridge should be 
reached and death end the conflict. No wonder that 
Mazdeism declined ; human nature could not endure the 
terrible tension. 

The Christian, though all the powers of earth and 
hell combine for his destruction, enters the conflict 
knowing he shall be victor, his heart sustained with hope 
and peace that passeth all understanding. But while 
we triumphantly sing, M Thanks be to God who hath 
given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord," let 
us also thank Him that before the fulness of His gracious 
time had come He gave to the inquiring world such a 
man as Zoroaster, who self forgetting and devoted, was 
willing to sacrifice wealth, position, social pleasure, even 
life itself, if by any means • the world might be made 
better and purer. Grand and stately figure, towering 
above the wreck of time, Zoroaster " one of the few 
immortal names that were not born to die." 

We will close this subject with the abstract of a 
Mazdean prayer or form of confession so humble, so 
searching, so self condemning, that we may well blush 
with shame as we compare it with the glittering gener- 
alities of our petitions. 

" I repent of all sins, all wicked thoughts, words and 
works which I have meditated in the world, corporeal, 
spiritual, earthly, and heavenly ; I repent in your presence 
ye believers. O Lord, pardon through the three words. 

I repent of the sins which can lay hold of the charac- 
ter of man, or which have laid hold of my character, small 
or great, which are committed amongst men, the mean- 
est sins which I have committed for the sake of others, or 
others for my sake, or if the hard sin has seized the char- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 219 

acter of an evil doer on my account, such sins, thoughts, 
words, or works, corporeal, mental, earthly, I repent of 
with the three words, Pardon, O Lord ! 

The sins against father, mother, sister, brother, wife, 
child, against spouses, against the superiors, against my 
own relations, against those living with me, against those 
who possess equal property, against the neighbors, against 
the inhabitants of the same town, against servants, every 
unrighteousness through which I have been amongst sin- 
ners, of these sins repent I, Pardon, O Lord ! 

That which was the wish of Ormazd, the Creator, and 
I ought to have thought, and have not thought, what I 
ought to have spoken, what I ought to have done and have 
not done, of these sins repent I, Pardon, O Lord. 

That which was the wish of Ahriman and I ought not 
to have thought, and yet have thought, what I ought not 
to have spoken and yet have spoken, what I ought not to 
have done and yet have done, of these sins I repent, Par- 
don, O Lord. 

Of pride, haughtiness, covetousness, slandering the 
dead, anger, envy, the evil eye, shamelessness, looking at 
with evil concupiscence, stiff neckedness, discontent with 
the godly arrangements, self-willedness, sloth, despising 
others, mixing in strange matters, unbelief, opposing the 
divine powers, false witness, false judgment, idol worship, 
breaking of the midday prayer, theft, robbery, whoredom, 
witchcraft, worshipping with sorcerers, unchastity, tear- 
ing the hair, as well as all other kinds of sin, which are 
enumerated in this Patet, or are not enumerated, which I 
am aware of, or not aware of, which are appointed or not 
appointed, which I should have bewailed with obedience 
before the Lord and have not bewailed, of these sins 



220 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

repent I, with thoughts, words and works, corporeal as 
spiritual, earthly as heavenly, O Lord, pardon, I repent." 
To the spirit of this prayer let us all respond, For 
Christ's sake. Amen. Or else "the men of Iran shall 
rise up in judgment against the men of this generation, 
for they repented at the preaching of Zoroaster and be- 
hold a greater than Zoroaster is here." 



CHAPTER IX. 
BRAHMINISM.— CASTE. 

" If a Sudra dare strike a Brahmin, he shall burn in hell a thousand years." 

HINDUSTAN, the birth place of the oldest philos- 
ophy and two of the most important religions, is 
a peninsula in Southern Asia lying almost within the 
Tropic of Cancer. It is densely populated and is the 
richest country in the world. Here rise the giant Hima- 
layas crowned with perpetual snow, and below lie a grand 
plateau and deltas, of tropical fertility. 

In consequence of this varied formation and climate, in 
this country are to be found numerous forms of animal 
and vegetable life, spices, gems and precious metals. 
There is also a great mixture of tribes of men, twenty 
one dialects being spoken. The Hindoos are well formed, 
graceful, subtle, and intellectual, of Aryan stock, and 
though now dark in complexion, they were originally 
white, so that it has been truly said " the same blood runs 
in the veins of the swarthy Bengalese and the English 
soldier, his conqueror. " 

For ages this gem of the East encircled by the lofty 
bulwark of the Himalayas, lay hidden from the world 
while the great conquerors, swept over other countries 
in ruthless warfare. Once known, this garden of delights 
became a tempting prize to military ambition. Darius 

221 



222 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

the Mede first invaded India 326, B. C. ; Alexander and 
other conquerors followed. 

India has no chronology before the Persian invasion. 
No great consolidators like Yu in China, Menes in Egypt, 
and Nimrod in Chaldea, have left way marks in the long 
blank of her prehistoric age. 

Her powdering rock inscriptions defy the acumen of 
the curious antiquary, though the methods of modern 
scientific analysis may yet wrest from them the well kept 
secret. At present we have only allusions in Zend and 
Sanscrit legends to long religious wars, and the terrible 
forms of the Naga Rajahs rear their serpent-crowned 
heads, for the sons of Magog preceded those of Madai 
and had introduced their wild civilization, and serpent 
worship, ideas which exerted a powerful influence upon 
the later religions. 

After the Aryan tribes, of which there were two grand 
influxes called the Solar and Lunar branches, had at last 
asserted their supremacy and were firmly established in 
their richly endowed home, shut in on the north by a 
huge mountain bulwark and on the south by the Indian 
Ocean, in a climate where physical want was supplied by 
little labor, the tropical warmth ever inviting to repose, 
forgotten by the outer world, the Hindoo nation developed 
and matured and dreamed away the tranquil ages. 

The philosophical and religious growth of this long 
period is embodied in Sanscrit writings, the Vedas, the 
Puranas, the Institutes of Menu and the Brahmanas, the 
oldest of which the Rig Veda, it is believed antedates the 
Hebrew writings of Moses. They were till recently in 
possession of a jealous priesthood, but are now open to 
western scholars and are attracting great attention from 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 223 

the light thus unexpectedly thrown upon ancient times 
and modes of thought. 

The names of the writers and their era seem to be 
carefully ignored, and the purely speculative philosophy 
therein contained, resolves itself into two grand themes, 
the first of which is, The Origin of the Universe. This 
they believe is a consequence of a propulsive power, 
uncreated and eternal identical with the soul of man, an 
influence which is called Brahm. Creation is thus de- 
scribed by a Hindoo. " Dissatisfied with solitude Brahma 
feels a desire to create worlds, then he sinks again into 
apathetic happiness while the volition his desire created, 
becomes an active principle called Maya or illusion ; by 
this the Universe is formed without exertion on the part 
of Brahma who is like one asleep." This is the doctrine 
of Emanation. 

There are three schools of Indian philosophy, the 
Vedanta, the Sankhya and Nyaya ; they differ in the 
first great subject, the Vedanta declaring that Brahma 
alone is uncreated, the Sankhya that nature and soul are 
eternal, and the Nyaya, that God, soul and atoms are 
uncreated. Soul as an all pervading eternal power is 
named Atman or self. Modern atheism has simplified 
that of the Sankya, by deciding that atoms alone are 
eternal ! 

The second great dogma of Hindoo philosophy is, 
that present existence aside from the eternal Brahma or 
soul, is only illusion and unmitigated evil and the prac- 
tical question is, How can man be delivered from this 
thraldom ? " Oh wretched man that I am, who shall 
deliver me from this body of death ? " This mournful 
sigh is ever heard breathing through the deep recesses 



224 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

of ancient thought ; but alas, without St. Paul's triumph- 
ant answer ! " I thank my God through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." The Hindoo philosophers striving vainly 
to solve the perplexing problem, finding that even prayer 
and good works were inadequate, concluded that knowl- 
edge only, will free the soul from its evil, illusive pres- 
ent state of existence. Their seers or prophets, were 
men who had obtained this knowledge or enlightenment 
which is not intelligence but consists in the annihilation 
of all passion and desire, the entire subjection of the 
body and mind, even the desire to become better or 
happier. 

When once attained, man can exclaim. " I am free 
because I am the eternal principle, perfect, self existent." 
He is sinless, he has need of nothing, not even of virtue 
or holiness itself. 

The Sankhya which strongly tinctures the doctrines 
of Gotama, the Buddha, is more atheistic than the other 
philosophies, though its morality is purer. It teaches 
that as the soul ascends by goodness, knowledge is 
attained and the result is the certainty of non-existence 
or Nirvana. This is undoubtedly the doctrine of Ab- 
sorption — which Solomon echoes when he says. " Then 
shall dust return to dust as it was and the spirit shall 
return to God who gave it." 

How inconceivable are these Oriental methods of 
thought to our practical minds ! 

Imagine a bustling New Englander, on a stormy 
winter day, hurrying against a zero snow storm to meet 
an important business engagement, or catch a flying 
railroad train, musing solemnly like these ancient phil- 
osophers. " I am Being, minus Not Being ! Nature is 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 225 

not what we perceive by the senses, but an invisible, 
plastic principle, which can only be known by the intel- 
lect ! When essence becomes existence, when spirit 
passes into action, then it becomes subject to law." It 
is better to sit than to walk, better to sleep than to wake, 
but death is best of all." Discoursing after this manner 
he would be considered insane and his friends would 
send him forthwith to an asylum. 

The Aryan Hindoos believing present existence to be 
only illusive evil and oblivion the only good, ignoring the 
past and present, have left no historical record or archi- 
tectural remains, "no chronology to mark the mourn- 
ful flow of life ever directed to inward thought." Their 
tombs were the funeral pyre floating from sight an indis- 
tinguishable nimbus, or the waves of the sacred river 
flowing, without return, to the illimitable waters of the 
ocean, forever and forever ! But while all that pertains to 
the interests and affairs of their material existence, is 
unrecorded, they have left in the jewelled casket of their 
literature philosophical and religious treasures, the me- 
mentoes of their spiritual life, which will live on, when 
the tombs of the Pharaohs and the inscribed rocks of 
Schiraz, have crumbled to original dust. 

To obtain a correct idea of the practical religion of 
those early days we must go back to the time when the 
children of Madia were driven from the high plateau of 
Western Asia by a sudden rigor of climate. These 
tribes possessed a remarkably pure monotheistic religion. 
Their priests the Magi, becoming corrupt, taught and 
practiced star and fire worship, magic and divination. 
Zoroaster affected a reformation of these errors and 
originated a new idea, the eternal conflict of good and 

15 



226 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE 

evil principles. A portion of the Magi would not accept 
the reformed religion and a violent schism and war was the 
consequence. A separation ensued, the pantheists, going 
south, crossed the Himalayas in the beds of mountain 
streams, and settled in a country which they called 
Hindu-stan " the land of the blacks." 

The elemental worship which they brought to Hindu- 
stan, is the most beautiful of natural religions. The vast 
over-reaching sky, the glorious sun which wakes and 
warms all nature into life, the milder moon which rules 
the night, the furious storm that blots out the lights of 
heaven and shakes the very sky, the ghostly wind, the 
ever heaving sea, the subtile fire, by turns a useful servant 
or a pitiless master, all these elements of nature to the 
uninstructed soul, are mysterious, awful powers, objects 
of superstitious love or fear, are invested with personality, 
and as deities are to be propitiated by sacrifice and wor- 
ship. Indra was the name given to the sunlight, Varuna 
was the dark sky, Marutz the storm, Agni the fire, Ap 
the waters. By degrees, all the elements and forces of 
nature were deified, even food and drink. There was at 
that early day no image worship. 

The Rig Veda is composed of prayers and hymns, the 
word means, " Hymns of Praise." Sir William Jones 
calculates from astronomical allusions, that the Yagur 
Veda dates 1580 B. C, one hundred years before the 
birth of Moses. The Book of Job can be dated in the 
same manner, if the stars therein named can be identified 
with certainty. From local allusions it is believed that 
the Rig Veda was written in the vale of Scinde on the 
west bank of the Indus, immediately after the first 
emigration, five thousand years ago. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 227 

In this ancient writing we find the freshness and purity 
of the dawn of religious aspirations, reminding us of the 
poetry of the book of Job. Let us close our sophisticated 
senses to the sounds of the 19th century, the roar of com- 
merce, the rush of railroad trains, the clanging of bells 
and scream of whistles, the buzz and clatter of manufac- 
tories, and listen to the melody of a tranquil Vedic morn- 
ing. " In the beginning there arose the Golden Child ! 
He was the one born Lord of all that is. He stablished 
the earth and sky. Who is the God to whom we shall 
render sacrifice ? He who gives life, who gives strength, 
whose command all the bright gods revere, whose shadow 
is immortality, whose shadow is death ! May he not des- 
troy us. He the Creator of the earth. He the righteous 
who created the heaven. He also created the bright and 
mighty waters ! Who is the God to whom we shall ren- 
der sacrifice ?" 

Listen also to a prayer to Varuna the dark sky : " Let 
me not yet, oh Varuna, enter into the hou§e of clay. 
Have mercy, Almighty, have mercy. 

Through want of strength, thou bright strong God, I 
have gone wrong ! Whenever we men, O Varuna, com- 
mit an offence before the heavenly host, whenever we 
break the law through thoughtlessness, punish us not, O 
God, for that offence. Do I say this to myself. How can 
I get to Varuna ? Will he accept my offering without dis- 
pleasure ? I ask, O Varuna, wishing to know my sin. 
The sages all tell me the same, Varuna it is who is angry 
with thee! Was it an old sin, O Varuna, that thou 
wished to destroy thy friend ? Tell me thou unconquer- 
able Lord. I will quickly turn to thee, freed from sin ! 
It was not our own doing, O Varuna, it was necessity or 



228 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

temptation, an intoxicating draught, passion, dice, thought- 
lessness. The old is there to mislead the young, even 
sleep brings unrighteousness. O Lord, Varuna, may this 
song go well to thy heart. May we prosper in keeping 
and acquiring. Protect us, oh gods, always with your 
blessing. ,, 

The first word spoken by Brahma was supposed to be 
om or aum. This mystic syllable expresses unity, and 
corresponds to the Jahve or Jehovah of the Hebrews. It 
could never be spoken except in prayer, and while temples 
and statues were erected to the personal attributes of 
Brahma, none were built for OM. The following verse 
from the Veda expresses the original idea. 

" Perfect truth, perfect happiness, without equal, immor- 
tal, absolute unity, whom neither speech can describe nor 
mind comprehend, all prevailing, all transcending, delight- 
ed with his own boundless intelligence, not limited by 
time or space, without feet, moving swiftly, without hands, 
grasping all worlds, without ears, all-hearing, understand- 
ing all, without cause, the first of all causes, all-ruling, all- 
powerful. The Creator, the Preserver, Transformer of 
all things, such is the Great One Brahm. ,, 

This admirable definition of Deity is, according to our 
own ideas of truth, as perfect as any which can be given. 
Some of the earliest texts of the Veda are spiritual as 
the New Testament, and seem like inspiration. "Any 
place where the mind of man can be undisturbed, is 
suitable for the worship of the Supreme Being." Com- 
pare this with the words of Christ, " Jesus saith unto her, 
Woman, the hour cometh and now is, when ye shall neither 
in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem worship the 
Father * * * true worshippers shall worship the Father 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 229 

in spirit and in truth." Again the Vedas say, " The knowl- 
edge of God leading to absorption in Him is one thing, 
rites which produce enjoyment, are another." " May this 
soul of mine, which is a ray of perfect wisdom, pure in- 
tellect and permanent existence, which is the inextinguish- 
able light fixed within a created body, without which no 
good act is performed, be united with the Spirit supreme- 
ly blest and supremely intelligent." 

Gladly would we linger in such a pure and lovely dream 
of the past, but stern visaged Truth rouses us and the 
Vedic vision is transformed. We have seen its most 
beautiful phase. Human nature was far from perfect in 
its childhood. "The greater part of the eight books of 
the Vedas are puerile, selfish, sensual." There was no 
love in the worship. Most of the prayers are for wealth, 
victory, animal gratification, health. The tiger in the 
forest might have joined in such prayers saying "Grant 
me health, a comfortable den, plenty of deer and cows, and 
strength to kill any intruder on my beat." 1 

A hymn to Pitu, (Food,) is an example in point " I 
glorify thee, Pitu, the great, the upholder, the strong. 
Savory Pitu, we worship thee, become our benefactor, 
and since we enjoy abundance of water and plants, there- 
fore, Body, do thou grow fat. And since we enjoy Soma, 
the mixture with boiled milk and barley, therefore Body, 
do thou grow fat. Cake of fried meal, do thou become 
substantial, wholesome and nourishing, and Body, do 
thou grow fat. We extract from thee, Oh Pitu, by our 
praises, the sacrificial food from thee who art exhilarating 
to the gods, exhilarating also to us." 

1 Rev Wm. Butler. 



230 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

Soma, an intoxicating beverage extracted from an herb 
similar to our milk weed, is often the subject of adoration, 
" Oh Soma, thine inebriety is most intense, nevertheless 
thy acts are most beneficent. Savory indeed is the 
Soma, sweet, sharp and full of flavor. No one is able to 
encounter Indra in battle after he has quaffed the Soma. 
The stomach of Indra is capacious as a lake, the belly of 
Indra which quaffs the Soma juice abundantly, smells 
like the ocean and is ever moist like the ample fluids of 
the palate. Saints and Sages sing the holy strain aloud 
like screaming swans, and, together with the gods, drink 
the sweet juice of Soma. By thus drinking, they urge 
one another to drink, and find the copious draught the 
prompt giver of intoxication." 

Alas, for the inconsistency of human religion. 

" This is the teaching of the so called Holy Vedas. 
Men have had the impertinence, after knowing all this, to 
assume a patronizing aspect toward Christianity and in- 
form us that however good and pure our faith may be in 
itself, it is not needed in India, because the Holy Vedas 
contain all that is necessary for the regeneration of that 
country. After a careful examination of this oracle of 
Vedantic Philosophy, we are shocked at every step, with 
the revelations of iniquity and sensuality, where saints and 
gods, male and female, hold high orgies amid the fumes of 
intoxicating liquor urging each other to deeper debase- 
ment, till decency retires and leaves them glorying in 
their shame." 1 

Certainly our sacred book exhibits no such dispara- 
ging inconsistency. 

i Rev. Wm. Butler. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 231 

The later writings, The Puranas, The Shaster and 
Institutes of Menu, exhibit a rapid deterioration. They 
contain the Hindoo system of social civil and religious 
duty. It is the oldest code extant, unless the Mosaic is 
excepted. The Hindoos say that it was given in the early 
ages to a child of the sun, who escaped from a great del- 
uge and reigned over all the world. This person Menu 
Satyavatra, had three sons, Sherma, Charma, and Iyapiti, 
evidently the three sons of Noah. The story of the 
drunkenness of the king, which is called the act of desti- 
ny, the reprehensible conduct of Charma and the curse 
that followed, is almost precisely like that of Hebrew 
scripture. 

The Code of Menu is unbearably unjust, exacting and 
cruel, denning minutely the duties of life : beginning with 
the dawn it directs every step through the day with such 
rigid detail, that we should suppose sleep from sheer ex- 
haustion would overpower the harassed senses. 

The ritual and ceremonies are frivolous and burden- 
some, past credence, and should fill our hearts with thank- 
fullness for tire liberty of the gospel " wherewith Christ 
has made us free." 

The fundamental principle and special peculiarity of 
this law, is the Caste system. This word is of modern 
European extraction, and means literally breed. The 
Sanscrit word is Varna, color, a distinction primarily made 
between the black aborigines and the white Aryan con- 
querors. Caste is an institution of unmitigated evil, cal- 
culated to render one class indolent, despotic and self in- 
dulgent, and the other, abject, deceitful, degraded and 
miserable, making men either monsters of cruelty, or 
beasts of burden. 



232 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

The four castes are, first the Brahmins, or Priests, 
second, the Rajahs, or soldiers; third, merchants and 
Farmers ; fourth, the Sudras, or servile class, the rem- 
nants of the black population. To these may be added 
the Pariahs or outcasts, and judging by grades of abuse 
and degradation, I should add, lowest of all, women. 

No person can rise in caste, though he may possess 
the purity and intellect of an angel, he must remain what 
ever his father chanced to be. No man can eat, drink, 
smoke or marry, with one of a higher caste, he cannot sit 
in the presence of his superior, or ride in the same vehi- 
cle. The railroads in India are effecting a change in this 
last particular, as the English companies will have only 
two classes of coaches. To approach a superior while he 
is eating, necessitates a suspension of the meal, and if 
any utensil is touched by one of lower caste, it must be 
broken. 

The slightest non-observance of the rules respecting 
Brahmins is a deadly sin, and sometimes a poor wretch 
loses his life on the instant, if he accidentally touches 
one. Minu says, " If a Sudra dare instruct a Brahmin 
respecting his duty, he shall have hot oil poured into his 
mouth and ear. If he speak with contumely of his caste, 
an iron style ten fingers long, heated red hot, shall be 
thrust into his mouth, but if he strike a Brahmin, he 
shall burn in hell a thousand years/' The pains and pen- 
alties of this religion are endless. The Pariahs must 
dwell outside of the town, their sole wealth must be 
dogs and asses, their clothes the mantles of dead per- 
sons, their dishes must be broken pots. No one who 
regards his duty must have any intercourse with them. 
By day they may roam about for purposes of work, and 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 233 

should always be employed to execute convicts." All 
this from no mental or moral deficiency, or fault of his 
own, but simply because he happened to be born a 
Pariah. 

The Brahmin himself was subjected to a tedious and 
puerile ceremonial, particularly in his morning ablutions. 
Bathing in running water, repeating expiatory texts, sip- 
ping water without swallowing, plunging various times, 
praying at the same moment, breathing through one nos- 
tril, then closing both, holding his breath and repeating 
during this process, various mysterious words, breathing 
water through his nose and then throwing it to the north- 
west, after various genuflections and mummeries, he con- 
cludes his morning devotions by a prayer to the rising 
sun ! 

" He must not gaze at the sun while rising or setting, 
or when eclipsed, or reflected in the water, he must not 
run when it rains, he must not look at his image in the 
water, or draw the attention of any one to a rainbow, or 
wash his feet in a pan of mixed metal, or step over a 
string to which a calf is tied." In his old age, he must 
mortify all passion, and extinguish all desire. He should 
become a hermit, and live in the forest. If he fail to 
obtain food, he should not be sorrowful, If he get it, 
he should not be glad, and food must be taken but once 
a day. He must be in constant motion, but in the hot 
season should sit surrounded by fires, with the sun burn- 
ing above him ; in the rainy season should expose himself 
naked to the heaviest showers. In the cold season, he 
must wear damp clothing. He must increase the aus- 
terity of his devotions, by degrees, until by harsher and 
harsher mortifications he has dried up his bodily frame." 



234 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

The Brahmin enforces his privilege over the lower 
castes with the greatest severity, but alas for the selfish- 
ness of human nature, there being none to compel, the 
code to him is a dead letter only as it is made the instru- 
ment of tyranny to others. None but the fanatic Fakirs 
pretend to practise these austerities and they only for 
self glorification. 

It is upon woman that this abominable system falls 
with the most crushing severity, and the flight of time 
has taken nothing from the heavy weight of her servi- 
tude. According to the laws of Menu, " Women have no 
business with the Vedas, therefore having no knowledge 
of expiatory texts, sinful women must be as foul as false- 
hood itself." Unhappy victims of injustice! with the 
impossibility of holiness, they are made responsible for 
sin ! No wonder the conscientious among them live upon 
the border land of despair. 

While polygamy and concubinage are allowed though 
not approved or commonly practised, the Code says : " A 
wife who wishes to attain in heaven the mansion of her 
husband, must do nothing unkind to him be he living or 
dead. If he dies, let her emaciate her body, living upon 
pure flowers or roots, but let her not so much as pro- 
nounce the name of another man. Let her remain till 
death, practising the incomparable rules of virtue, for- 
giving injuries, performing harsh duties, and avoiding 
every sensual pleasure." 

" When in the presence of her husband a woman 
must keep her eyes upon her master and be ready to 
receive his commands. When he speaks she must be 
quiet. When he calls she must leave everything to attend 
him. A woman has no god on earth but her husband. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 235 

Though he be aged, infirm, a drunkard, or a debauchee, 
she must still regard him as a god. Though he be irreli- 
gious, or enamoured of another woman, he must be con- 
stantly revered as a god." As compensation for such 
abject devotion, Menu says: "A wife who drinks any 
spirituous liquor, who acts immorally, who speaks un- 
kindly or shows hatred to her lord, who is mischievous or 
extravagant, who is incurably diseased or barren, or 
whose children are dead or are all daughters, may be 
superseded by another wife." A man may marry another 
woman under these facile pretences, but the divorced 
wife or widow deprived of fine clothing, her ornaments 
taken away, is degraded to the most menial labor, is 
treated as if responsible for her misfortune, and can 
never so much as speak the name of another man ; even 
a betrothed maiden can never marry if her intended hus- 
band forsakes her. 

Betrothed at seven or eight years of age, the little 
girl thenceforward becomes the property of her husband, 
lives in his house, under the tutelage of his mother, who 
trains her, often very harshly, for her coming duties. 
From this time she can never be seen by any man except 
her own brothers or father. If any male member of her 
husband's family approaches the Zenana (women's quar- 
ter), she must fly as if her life was in jeopardy. 

The awful rite of burning widows at the stake has 
been abolished by the English government, but the bur- 
dens of widowhood are so great as to make this change a 
doubtful blessing. 

The funeral of a mother is a fitting close to such a 
life. If she dies too suddenly to be taken to the Ganges, 
or if too far from the river, the body is burned, and a 



236 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

portion of the ashes is thrown into the sacred stream, 
the bones being left to be devoured by wild beasts. But 
if there is time after hope is abandoned, regardless of 
physical pain or mental anguish, she is taken from the 
home where she is no longer needed, and carried by ser- 
vants to the banks of the sacred river. Her husband, to 
whom she is now of no consequence, does not attend 
her, but her son accompanies the bearers, and sits by his 
mother in the burning heat, wetting her lips with water 
or mud, till the fluttering pulses are stilled by death, and 
then taking the body by the heels he draws it into the 
water, and giving it a strong push outward, goes home as 
fast as possible from the distasteful scene, leaving his 
mother's corpse to be cast ashore, a prey to foul birds, or 
floating far to sea, to be devoured by marine monsters. 

Compare this coarse brutality, this fiendish cruelty, 
with the sweet humanities of the Christian religion, the 
tender services and solemn respect given to the dying 
and dead, the deep reverence of our funeral rites and the 
sacredness of the tomb ! Sympathy for the sick, the 
unfortunate, the weak, the aged, the infirm, to sum up 
all in one word — Love is the great certitude to Christian- 
ity. This universal humanity is notable in its influence 
upon the condition of woman, whose elevation always 
implies a corresponding exaltation in the character of 
man. 

Mr. Butler, after a long residence in India, writes : 
"If there be any one thing short of salvation, in which 
America and India contrast most vividly, it is woman's 
high position in her home and man's consequent happi- 
ness as a result, as a wife living for the husband that she 
loves, as a mother making her abode a nursery for the 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 237 

Eden on high, the friend and patron of all that is lovely, 
virtuous and of good report. In the presence of this 
excellence, everything beautiful on earth brightens. The 
holiest and happiest men in the world bask in this 
blessed social sunshine, thus sanctified domestic joy be- 
coming a sign and promise of a felicity which will be 
endless in their heavenly home." 

The women of India are gentle, affectionate and 
pious. Oppressed by the intolerable hardships irrevoc- 
ably imposed upon their sex, it is not surprising that 
suicide and female infanticide are of common occur- 
rence. Mothers frequently strangle or drown in the 
sacred stream their unfortunate little daughters, or ad- 
minister a fatal poison with the first and last draught of 
nourishment they ever receive. 

And yet Mr. Samuel Johnson, the laudator of Oriental 
Religion, says : " We find even a spiritual and sosial thral- 
dom like caste, though bristling with insensate ceremo- 
nies and penalties, alive with the endeavor to subdue self- 
ish desires. We see this alike in the implacable severity 
with which sensual appetites are punished, and in the 
benevolence which runs through the organism, forbidding 
wrath and revenge, and in its way anticipating the ten- 
derness of the modern poet : 

" He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things, both great and small, 
For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all." 

If Mr. Johnson had said, / see all this gentle benevo- 
lence, no one could have disputed him, for with the lenses 
of prejudice and bigotry a man can distort outline and 



238 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

confuse color, and see whatever he wills to see ; but when 
he says " We see," he presumes too much. The average 
common sense intellect can perceive in the Laws of 
Menu, only grinding oppression, intolerable tyranny, and 
implacable malevolence, with a hypocritical tenderness, 
sub human, it must have been brought from the bottom- 
less pit by the Arch Enemy of mankind himself. " A 
Brahmin must strain the water he drinks through a 
cloth, lest he should hurt an insect." Transcendental 
tenderness ! " If a Sudra insult a Brahmin he should 
have his tongue slit ; if he mention his caste with con- 
tumely, he must have^n iron style ten fingers long, red 
hot, thrust into his mouth ; and if he strike a Brahmin 
he must burn in hell a thousand years." Transcendental 
atrocity ! Is this forbidding wrath and revenge ? 

" If a wife is incurably diseased or barren, or brings 
forth only daughters, or if her children are dead," mis- 
fortunes for which she could not be responsible, " she 
may be superseded," that is, doomed to a life of hard 
toil, disgrace and despair. Is this " anticipating the 
tenderness " of the gentle Coleridge ? Does it not 
rather make " Vice duty, and damnation heaven ? " God 
forbid that our spiritual vision should ever become so 
frightfully perverted as to see " unselfishness and tender 
benevolence " in this system, lauded and admired by the 
atheistic men and women of America ! and which I once 
heard described as " better and purer than anything to be 
found in our musty old book." 

Transmigration is another doctrine of Brahminism. 
All beings are subject to this law. The Gods themselves 
have their avatars and changes and sometimes appear in 
very unattractive forms. Vishnu has appeared as a turtle, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 239 

a monkey, and a hog ! A man who has fulfilled the 
whole law, rises to the rank of deity in the future world, 
but the disobedient pass into the bodies of lower caste 
men, beasts, serpents or vegetables. The metempsy- 
chosis is almost interminable in the case of great sinners, 
they being transformed into loathsome reptiles and in- 
sects. This belief leads to a horror of destroying animal 
life ; by stepping on a vicious looking spider, you may 
inadvertently slay your grandfather, and there is no 
calculating what horrible beast you may yourself become, 
to purge you from parricidal guilt. Poetical justice pre- 
vails in this world of transformation. "A man who 
steals grain becomes a rat, he who steals meat becomes 
a vulture, a sensualist has his senses made acute to suffer 
pain. ,; The process is so gradual that it is virtually end- 
less, the law so multifarious, circumstantial and impracti- 
cable, that exact obedience is an utter impossibility, and 
the danger of lapses so great, that hope in a conscientious 
mind must . be debarred short of an Indian Kalpa — 
the time between the creation of one world and an- 
other. 

Yet Mr. Johnson, who has made this religion a pro- 
found study says, " At most this Inferno of Transmigra- 
tion with all its fantastic torments and inconceivable du- 
rations, has not so relentless a spirit towards the offender 
as is involved in the Christian dogma of endless punish- 
ment." Again he remarks " Brahminism and Buddhism 
have sought to provide ways of escape, as Christianity has 
also had its fine evasions of its own dismal lore of eternal 
punishment. ,, " The theological hell of civilized races has 
been worked up with a refined vindictiveness, and a 
morbid exaggeration of moral evil under the name of 



240 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

sin, that does not shrink from staining the eternity of 
God with blind, inexorable hate/' 

Mr. Johnson is doubtless a profound investigator, but 
in Christianity he has gone altogether too deep and dis- 
covered too much. Taking consequences into account, 
it is hardly possible "to exaggerate " moral evil in this 
present existence, and so far from " staining the eternity 
of God with blind inexorable hate" the simplest soul can 
discern in Christianity only infinite love, mercy and sal- 
vation from sin and all its consequences, " There is 
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in 
Christ Jesus/' 1 "Christ is the end of the law for 
righteousness to every one that believeth." 2 

No metempsychosis, no purgatorial fires, no weighing 
of good and evil actions, no painful sacrifice or penance 
even is required ; that has all been offered ; sincere sor- 
row for sin and a belief in Christ's willingness and ability 
to save, are the easy terms. Is this " blind inexorable 
hate," " a relentless spirit/' "a fine evasion," or a wide 
open door perceptible to the feeblest vision, through 
which the sinful soul, wrapt in the mantle of Christ's 
righteousness may fearlessly pass direct to the Paradise 
of God ? 

The power of penance and sacrifice are exaggerated in 
Brahminism. Bathing in the Ganges, eating or burning 
clarified butter, and repeating Vedic texts are among the 
simpler forms. " A man who can repeat all the texts, of 
the Rig Veda, would be free from guilt even if he should 
kill all the inhabitants of the three worlds/' Bodily 
mortification and sacrifices of various kinds persistently 

1 Romans, viii., 1. 2 Romans, x., 4. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 241 

practised, confer upon men a power which rivals that of 
the gods, and this, though the aspirant may be the vilest 
of mankind. Brahma himself became Creator in reward 
for a penance which lasted ten thousand years. One 
old sage of low caste was ambitious to become a Brah- 
min, a small but very improbable attainment. A long 
and horrible penance promised the reward, but the gods, 
determined to prevent it, sent a beautiful nymph to tempt 
him, he fell before her attractions, and the gifted Sakon- 
tala, celebrated in Hindu poetry, was their daughter, but 
afterwards ashamed of his weakness, he renewed his self 
punishment to such a degree, that he obtained power to 
create a new heaven and new gods, and had actually made 
a few stars, when the terrified divinities gave in and al- 
lowed him to become a Brahmin. The very demons by 
austerities and self torture attain almighty power. These 
self denying old monsters were awfully cruel and ty- 
rannical ; men and gods were sometimes severely tried 
before they were overcome by force or fraud. The 
curse of Kehama, by Southey, is founded upon this 
idea. 

The penances prescribed by the laws of Menu, were 
greatly disproportioned to the turpitude of the offender. 
The repetition of the Rig Veda could atone for the 
wholesale slaughter of men and gods, but if a man should 
kill a cow — hear the penalty in such a case, •■ all day 
he must stand waiting upon a herd of cows, quaffing the 
dust raised by their hoofs, at night, having servilely at- 
tended them, he must sit near and guard them, free from 
passion, stand when they stand and lie near them when 
they lie down. By thus waiting on a herd for three 

months, he who has killed a cow atones for his guilt." 

16 



242 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

In modern Brahminism, the nature worship of the 
Vedic age is superseded by the grossest forms of idola- 
try. Turanian ideas, at first abhorred, were gradually 
introduced, the simple offering of fruit and flowers, clari- 
fied butter, and soma, are now represented by blood 
sacrifices, even of human victims, with ceremonies too ob- 
scene and revolting to be described. 

Ethics form no part of this religion, while serpents, 
monkeys, cows, peacocks, crocodiles and many other 
animals swell the Hindoo Pantheon. 

The Hindoo Triad consists of Brahma the Creator, 
Vishnu the Preserver, and Seeva the Destroyer, with 
their wives. Brahma receives little homage. Vishnu 
and his wife Lachema are worshipped with peaceful rites, 
though his Juggernaut car is dragged through the 
country in July and many persons are crushed beneath 
the ponderous vehicle. The myth of this god, seems 
like a prophecy of Christ. He is called Chrisna, takes 
the human form to save mankind from misery, angels 
with music announce his birth, he is saved, in infancy 
from death by flight, performs miracles and benefac- 
tions, signs in heaven and earth foretell his death. He 
is shot by an arrow in his foot, and ascends to heaven. 
He is called the Liberator from the Serpent of Death, 
and is pictured as bitten in the foot by a serpent or as 
treading upon the head of the conquered beast. 

Seeva and his abominable wife Kali (Time,) receive 
the greatest proportion of homage and sacrifice. 

Kali is a frightful monster with a lolling tongue which 
drips with gore, she wears a necklace of human skulls. 
These fierce deities love self-torture, their worshippers 
practice cruel and revolting rites, thrusting iron through 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 243 

the tongue or flesh, whirling through the air upon a 
sweep suspended by hooks fastened in the muscles of the 
back, hanging head downward over a fire, jumping on 
knives, sticking themselves full of pins or needles. 

The horrors of this worship may be imagined from 
the frantic invocation of the priests. " Hail, Kali ! Hail, 
Devi ! Hail, Goddess of thunder ! iron sceptered, fierce 
Kali. Cut, slay, destroy, cut with the axe, drink blood, 
slay, destroy ! " During the infernal orgies dedicated to 
her worship, the temples literally run with gore. 

There are many inferior deities and all appear in vari- 
ous forms so that there are almost as many gods as wor- 
shippers. Most of them are monsters of vice, meanness 
and cruelty, the very contemplation of which is demor- 
alizing. 

Gloomy and repulsive shadows of superstition attach 
themselves to every object and motion, and so enslave 
the whole nature of man, that under such conditions, 
life would indeed be, agreeably to their philosophy, the 
greatest of evils. 

This idea advanced by their sages, and made a prac- 
tical verity, tends strongly to the commission of suicide. 
" While the Jew and Persian cling to life with great 
tenacity, the Chinese with unfaltering hand, rips open 
his own bowels or hangs himself, and the Hindoo walks 
calmly to the river bank, and stepping quietly into the 
deep stream, leaves behind him a world which is nothing 
but illusion and evil." x 

The highly educated Hindoos of the present day, 
those who read Cicero, Dante, Shakespeare, the works 



1 Max Miiller. 



244 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

of John Stuart Mill and Theodore Parker untranslated, 
are by no means pagans. They will not be what their 
tyrants, the English, call themselves, Christians, and are 
consequently Deists of the modern school. With the 
works of this class of writers, they imbibe a liberal and 
progressive spirit and begin to feel the want of educated 
female society. They therefore welcome the missionary 
ladies to their Zenanas and say to them, " Teach our wives 
any religion you please, if you will induce them to learn 
to read." Through the mothers of India we may thus 
hope to introduce Christianity into these "dark places 
of the earth, now full of the habitations of cruelty." 

In the history of Brahminism is exhibited the wretched 
failure of a religious philosophy which practically tran- 
scends the power of our complex human nature. Its teach- 
ing that the welfare of the soul is of supreme importance, 
that eternity is of greater consequence than time, and that 
a right regard of these truths will induce man to subdue 
his animal nature, will be readily admitted by all serious 
minds, but the idea that the body is of no importance, 
that it must be neglected and even tortured, that present 
existence is such an unmitigated evil, that life may be 
abridged at the will of the possessor, is fatal error. 
Man has a double nature, and of this his immortal self 
should receive his greatest care ; he should avoid the 
animal instinct which exclaims, " Let us eat and drink, 
for to-morrow we die." Yet the body must not be ig- 
nored, its health, comfort and general well-being are im- 
portant. The perfection of manhood is " the sound 
mind in the sound body." Even our Master in his hur- 
ried three years of active life, seeing his disciples coming 
and going so busy that they had forgotten to take food 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 245 



said considerately, " Come ye into the desert and rest 
awhile." 

To produce a rounded character, a well balanced na- 
ture, a perfect man, nothing that pertains to the welfare 
of any part of his constitution, must be neglected. 

Brahminism failed to meet this necessity, and the 
deplorable consequences are apparent in individual char- 
acter and social policy. Theoretically the most spiritual 
and self-denying of all systems, it is practically gross and 
self-indulgent. The inevitable reaction which follows 
extremes, is here exemplified, where men vibrate between 
severe asceticism and base sensuality. Christianity avoids 
both extremes and preserves the golden mean. 

The downward proclivity of all human systems is 
painfully apparent in the deterioration of Brahminism. 
It contains no principle of self-renovation and purifica- 
tion. The Vedas represent a religious and social condi- 
tion vastly superior to that now existing. 

Though the pantheism so deprecated by the Mazde- 
ans is apparent in every page of the earliest writing, the 
deities were simply the powers of nature, not the mon- 
strosities of later times. Woman at that time held an 
honorable position, she is spoken of as the light of the 
dwelling, and united with her husband in religious cere- 
monies. Monogamy was the general rule, and daughters 
were tenderly cherished. 

Although the foundation of Caste was laid at that 
time, and the benefits of religion were limited to the 
three upper classes, there was none of the despotic pride 
apparent in the Code of Menu at a later day. A gentle 
self-deprecating piety breathes in some of the earliest 
prayers, which must have found acceptance with a gracious 



246 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

God. Listen to the pathetic language of the worshipper 
as he offers fruit or flowers to Varuna (of what account is 
the name). " If I go along trembling like a cloud driven 
by the wind, have mercy, Almighty, have mercy ! It 
was not our own doing, O Varuna, that we have gone 
wrong, it was necessity or temptation, an intoxicating 
draught, passion, dice, thoughtlessness, the old is there to 
mislead the young, even sleep brings unrighteousness ! " 
Contrast these peaceful rites with the frantic shrieks 
and yells of the mob who drag the car of Juggernaut, 
the unavailing agony of the young widow, as the devour- 
ing flames consume her tender frame, and shudder as 
we enter the accursed pagoda in whose unhallowed re- 
cesses still more diabolical atrocities are perpetrated. 

When we considered the Chinese philosophy, we 
seemed to be reading by a taper's light, it was dim and 
insufficient, but the taper was of pure wax and the artifi- 
cial twilight was clear. 

When we contemplated the Zoroastrian religion, we 
seemed to stand in the night, by a Parsee mountain fire, 
it wavered and flared with the rush of the restless ele- 
ments, yet the light was bright though uncertain, and 
the dawn of coming day was in the sky ! 

But now we have been sitting in a close place where 
burns a smoking lamp, There is light even here, but 
the oil has grown impure with age, the thick atmosphere 
oppresses our breathing, our senses are offended by a 
nauseous odor, and the defiling smoke has settled over all 
things. Let us with grateful hearts, turn from this 
place of suffocation and joyfully walk through the ever- 
open door into the pure sunlight of our religion, which 
is perfect Love and perfect Liberty. 



CHAPTER X. 

BUDDHISM. 

" Enlightenment" Nirvana. 

" But who to dull forgetfulness a prey, 
This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned." 

MANY grave reasons combine at the present moment 
to render the examination of Buddhism a matter of 
unusual seriousness. Its tremendous proportions, greater 
even than those of Christianity, its humane and searching 
morality, its Decalogue so like the Mosaic, its ceremonial 
resembling and rivalling that of Rome, its aim at 
Catholicity and the ardent propagandism of its mission- 
aries, all these startle the enquirer, and demand his 
serious thought. 

In addition to these reasons, intrinsically important, 
is the fact that since the sacred books in the Sanscrit 
language have become the common property of scholars, 
writers have appeared who exalt Buddhism to the level 
of Christianity : they have published heavy tomes to 
authenticate theories which are certainly calculated to 
disturb and unsettle the minds of superficial thinkers, to 
which class a great portion of every community, especi- 
ally the young, necessarily belong. 

These ardent admirers of the doctrines of Buddha, 

have not yet set up his image in their houses or churches 

247 



248 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

to shape their devotions, but they certainly have done 
enough to make it the imperative duty of Christians to 
investigate thoroughly the principles of this powerful and 
attractive religion. 

Buddhism usually dates from the life of Gotama, Sakya 
Muni, 550 B.C., but oriental scholars give it a much 
greater antiquity. An idea has prevailed in the East, 
from the remotest ages, that at immeasurably extended 
periods truth becomes incarnate in the person of a great 
sage, called Muni, teacher, or Bud, one who is enlightened. 
From the same Sanscrit root come our word bode and 
forebode. 

The first of these perfect men were antediluvian and 
each influenced the world an incalculable period of time, 
called a Kalpa, which may be represented by a unit and 
sixty ciphers. 

After the Deluge, others more or less perfect suc- 
ceeded, one of which, the ancient Chinese Buddha, born 
1029 B. C, was a Tartar warrior, Sakya Sinha, Lion of 
the Moon. 

The last of these distinguished sages was Gotama, 
whose doctrines will prevail five thousand years, when 
another Buddha will appear with the final revelation. 
There are other indications, beside the prevalence of this 
belief, that Buddhism is older than Brahminism, with 
which it has always been in antagonism. 

Peculiarities in its astronomical system indicate that 
it ante-dates that of the Brahmins which last is very 
similar to the Newtonian. The Ramayana, a Hindoo 
poem written more than a thousand years before Christ, 
five hundred years before the last Buddha appeared, dis- 
tinctly alludes to the sect. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 249 

The oldest architectural ruins throughout Southern 
Asia indicate the great antiquity of the Buddhist be- 
lief. In the islands of Salsette and Elephanta near Bom- 
bay, at Ellora in Central India, on the coast of Coro- 
mandel, and in many other places, are wonderful ancient 
temples cut from solid rock, sometimes in the very 
bowels of mountains and miles in extent. Their majes- 
tic proportions, gloomy grandeur, magnificent pillars, 
carvings and tracery, paintings still brilliant, and inscrip- 
tions in an unknown character, cut in rock so hard as to 
defy the edge of ordinary steel, fill the beholder with 
speechless amazement. Here, among other colossal stat- 
ues, are figures, evidently intended to represent the Bud- 
dhas of old. Some of these statues have short curling hair, 
and features and expression, like the giant rock-cut faces 
of Egypt. They are entwined with enormous serpents, 
while other Ophite shapes, Colossal Bulls and Phallic 
emblems constantly abound. Mr. Erskinesaysof the six 
miles of ruins at Ellora, " The magnificence and extent 
of the subterranean temples, astonish and distract the 
mind. The Empire, whose pride they must have been, 
has passed away and left not a record/' But the light 
thrown upon these remote ages, by our newly acquired 
discovery of the prevalence of serpent worship, resolves 
the mystery. Here reigned with irresistible sway, the 
impious Naga Rajahs, and in these dark, unhallowed cav- 
erns wrought with superhuman toil, were performed the 
diabolical rites of the Serpent Deity. 

With this insight into the antiquity and origin of 
Buddhism we shall better understand many conflicting 
characteristics of its more recent form, which greatly 
puzzle superficial investigators. In the early ages there 



25 o FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

was a perpetual struggle between the Turanian and Aryan 
population, and at the advent of the last Buddha, Tur- 
anian influence was still powerful. It is even now per- 
ceived in the form of Seeva, who is represented with 
the serpent's head issuing from his shoulders. But be- 
fore the appearance of Gotama, Brahminism had been 
for centuries the dominant religion. It had become greatly- 
corrupted. Vedic purity and simplicity were totally lost. 
Caste distinctions, rigidly enforced, oppressed society 
intolerably, the Brahmin, proud and cruel, made the 
most and worst of his high prerogative ; while a burden- 
some ceremonial, an immoral pantheon, and gross su- 
perstition, made up the heavy weight under which men 
sighed and staggered. 

Humanity vibrates between extremes, and a sagacious 
observer could have calculated the form of reaction. The 
Buddhism of Gotama was not a reformation of Brahmin- 
ism as is often erroneously asserted, but a recoil from, or 
protest against it; he adopted the philosophy of the 
Sankhya, not that of the Vedanta the two faiths are 
radically and essentially dissimilar. The Brahmins 
taught that all good came from the inner life, Buddha, 
that it consisted in good works. Brahminism theoreti- 
cally an exaggerated spirituality, had degenerated into 
idolatry, while morality was ignored and humanity forgot- 
ten. Buddhism, attempting to correct these evils, went 
to the other extreme, levelled all social distinctions, abol- 
ished all gods and religious rites, and enforced a rigid 
and humane morality. Brahminism was all religion and 
no ethics. Buddhism was all ethics and no religion. 
Buddha engrafted upon his morality, says M. Ferguson, 
" three leading characteristics of Turanian faith, atheism, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 



! 5* 



metempsychosis, and hatred of caste." Thus drifting 
with the popular current, his success was unbounded. 
He forbade the worship of the Nagas, but the excessive 
superstition of the lower castes, was too strong to be 
overpowered. 

From a mass of myth and fiction we gather something 
of the life of Gotama, who may justly take high rank 
among the masters of mankind. 

He was the son of a wise and good king, who reigned 
in a populous province in Northern India. His mother, 
a great beauty, died early, and he was brought up by her 
sister. He was beautiful, accomplished and precocious, 
but thoughtful and inclined to solitude. The father, 
alarmed at these tendencies, married Him early to the 
lovely Princess Gopa. The union was of the happiest, 
but the prince still pondered the problems of life and death. 
"Nothing is stable, nothing is real," he sighed. "Life is 
but a spark lighted and extinguished. We know not whence 
it came, or whither it has gone, like the sound of the lyre 
it passes to the unknown. There must be some supreme 
intelligence where man might find rest. If I could attain 
it, if I were free, I could deliver .the world." 

St. Hilaire, who has translated the life of Buddha from 
the Sanscrit, thus tells the interesting story of his conver- 
sion. " One day, when the prince with a large retinue was 
driving through the eastern gate of the city on the way to 
one of his parks, he met an old man, broken and decrepit. 
One could see the veins and muscles over his whole body, 
his teeth chattered, he was covered with wrinkles, bald, and 
hardly able to utter hollow and unmelodious sounds. He 
was bent like a stick, and all his limbs and joints trembled. 
" Who is that man," said the prince to his coachman. " He 



252 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

is small and weak, his flesh and blood are dried up, his 
muscles stick to his skin, his head is white, his teeth 
chatter, his body is wasted away ; leaning on his stick he 
is hardly able to walk, stumbling at every step. Is there 
something peculiar in his family, or is this the common 
lot of all human beings ! " " Sir ! " said the coachman, 
" that man is sinking under old age, his senses have become 
obtuse, suffering has destroyed his strength, and he is de- 
spised by his relations. He is without support and use- 
less ; people have abandoned him like a dead tree in a 
forest. But this is not peculiar to his family. In every 
creature youth is defeated by old age. Your father, your 
mother, all your friends, will come to the same state, this 
is the appointed lot of all creatures. 

" Alas ! " replied the prince " are creatures so ignorant, 
so weak and foolish, as to be proud of the youth by which 
they are intoxicated, not seeing the old age which awaits 
them. As for me I go away ; coachman, turn my chariot 
quickly. What have I, the future prey of old age, what 
have I to do with pleasure ? " and the youth returned to 
the city without going to his park. 

Another time the prince was driving through the 
northern gate of the city to his pleasure garden when he 
perceived on the road, a man suffering with illness, parch- 
ed with fever, his body wasted, covered with mud, with- 
out a friend, without a home, hardly able to breathe, 
and frightened at the sight of himself and the approach of 
death. Having questioned his coachman and received 
his answer, the young prince said, " Alas, health is but 
the sport of a dream, and the fear of suffering must take 
this frightful form. Where is the wise man, who, after 
seeing what he is, could any longer think of joy and pleas- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 253 

ure. So the prince turned the chariot and went back to 
the city. 

A third time he was driving to his pleasure gardens 
through the western gate, when he saw a dead body lying 
on a bier and covered with a cloth. The friends stood 
around sobbing, crying, tearing their hair, covering their 
heads with dust, striking their breasts and uttering wild 
lamentations. The prince calling his coachman to wit- 
ness this painful scene, exclaimed, " Oh ! woe to youth 
which must be destroyed by old age. Woe to health which 
must be destroyed by disease. Woe to this life, where a 
man remains so short a time. If there were no old age, 
no disease, no death. If these could be made captive for- 
ever ! " Then betraying his intention for the first time, 
he exclaimed, " Let us turn back, I must think how to ac- 
complish deliverance." 

A last meeting put an end to his hesitation, as he was 
driving through the southern gate to his pleasure garden, 
he saw a mendicant, who appeared outwardly calm, sub- 
dued, looking downwards, wearing with an air of dignity, 
his religious vestment, and carrying an alms bowl. 

" Who is this man " asked the prince, " Sir," replied the 
coachman, " this man is one of those who are called mendi- 
cants. He has renounced all pleasure, all desire, and leads 
a life of austerity. He tries to conquer himself. He has 
become a devotee ; without passion, without envy, he 
walks about asking for alms." 

" That is good," replied the prince. " The life of a de- 
votee has always been praised by the wise. It will be my 
refuge and the refuge of other men, it will lead us to real 
life, to happiness and immortality/' 

With these words the young prince returned to 



254 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



the city. After having declared to his father and his 
wife his intention of retiring from the world, he left 
the palace on the night of the birth of his son, when 
the city was given up to festivity, and no one could sus- 
pect his intention. After travelling all night he sent 
back his ornaments and his horse by the groom who at- 
tended him, and went on foot to a Brahmin of great 
sanctity, hoping to find in his teaching deliverance from 
evil. Disappointed at this monastery he retired to a still 
more famous teacher, but with no better success. 

He then sought the solitude of the forest, where he 
remained for six years, practising the severe penances of 
a monk. At last his patience was rewarded. Seated under 
a Bo tree, from which he had not moved for a day and a 
night, his soul was suddenly illuminated, and he received 
knowledge of the cause of change, and thereby his fear of 
it was destroyed. He now claimed the title of Buddha, or 
enlightened, and went forth filled with pity and love, to 
dispense to others the happiness which he had found. 

" Thus did the young prince become the founder of a re- 
ligion, which after more than two thousand years, numbers 
four hundred and fifty-five millions of the human race/' 1 
The Hindoos had no chronology, and the date of 
Gotamas advent is uncertain. It was said in India 
that Buddha had been dead one hundred and sixty-two 
years, at the time of the Alexandrian conquest. This 
would make his era the 5th century B. C, contemporary, 
according to Mr. Carpzow's reckoning, with the prophet 
Ezekiel, Josiah of Judea, Nebuchadnezzar, and Cyrus the 
Great. 



Max Miiller. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 255 

After his conversion he went to Benares, the holy city 
of India, and boldly preached his doctrines. His power- 
ful family and many other rulers and prominent men 
were converted, and his followers became numerous. 
The Brahmins attacked him furiously, for he violated 
every rule of caste, and aimed at the overthrow of their 
entire system. Notwithstanding this opposition he la- 
bored with astonishing success till he was eighty years of 
age, when on one of his missionary tours, his strength 
suddenly gave way. He sat down beneath a tree in the 
forest, and calmly yielded up his life, being absorbed, as 
his disciples firmly believe, into the Nirvana he had re- 
vealed to man. 

A beautiful life of self-sacrifice ended by a tranquil 
death. 

To the average American mind, principles of Orien- 
tal religion and philosophy are incomprehensible. The 
Taoism of China, the Brahminism and Buddhism of 
India, are totally foreign to our practical methods of 
thought. Hindu philosophy could not have had birth in 
New England. Life with us is not Maya, illusion, but 
stern uncompromising reality! We cannot dream be- 
cause we must act. If, longing for repose, we retire to 
the quiet hills on some mellow autumnal day, and " in 
the realm of leafless trees " we, with "the russet year in- 
hale the balmy air," if, forgetting care and toil, we give 
ourselves up to the illusion of an Indian summer sunset, 
and while sense grows dim, we drift into the calm re- 
gions of abstract speculation, a rude disenchanting blast 
from Boreas rushes past, and with a shiver, suggestive of 
rheumatism and influenza, our dreams dissolve, and we 
hurry home to prepare fires and furs for " waiting win- 



256 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

ter gaunt and grim." No Sankhya with poppy breath 
can lull us into forgetfulness ! 

This atheistic philosophy, as adopted and modified 
for the followers of Gotama, teaches that there are two 
uncreated principles, Soul and Nature, that existence is 
illusion, that sorrow and evil will cease if every affection, 
passion, and desire are eradicated, individuality or self 
absolutely renounced, and * soul and body subjected to 
spirit. In this condition man no longer exists, he simply 
is. Nirvana is attained. 

This idea, reduced to our modes of expression, would 
seem to be, if, by force of will and determined desire, a 
man can annihilate self, he will no longer be subject to 
the law of consequences, because he has passed into 
nothingness or "the void" he is no thing, that is, he has 
no longer a separate individual existence, but has become 
absorbed into the original universal soul. 

An extract from the Pali sacred books of Ceylon will 
illustrate this extraordinary idea. The King said to 
the Sage, " Is the joy of Nirvana associated with sor- 
row ? " He replied, " It is unmixed satisfaction, free 
from sorrow." 

" Is Nirvana in the east, west, north or south, above 
or below ? " 

" Neither is it in the east, west, north or south, above 
or below, or in any of the infinite Sakwallas." 

u Then if Nirvana has no locality there can be no such 
thing, and to say that one attains it, is a false declara- 
tion." 

" There is no such place and yet it exists, it can be 
attained." 

" When it is attained does it exist ?" 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 257 

" When it is attained, it does exist." 
" Where is the place of its existence ? " 
" Wherever the precepts are observed, it may be any- 
where, as a man who has eyesight can see the sky from 
anywhere, or as all places have an Eastern side ! " 

Such a doctrine fills us with astonishment and in- 
credulity. "What!" we exclaim, "has this attenuated 
idealism met the spiritual wants of millions of human 
souls for thousands of years ? Is this the religion which 
to-day boasts control over thirty-two per cent, of the 
entire human family, a greater proportion than Christi- 
anity itself ? " 

Originally and* theoretically Buddhism was not a re- 
ligion in any sense ; there was in it no bond between 
man and God, for it acknowledged no Deity. Soul and 
nature were the only eternal principles ; this is blank 
atheism. But though not a religion it was a great social 
and political reformation. Gotama, a prince of the 
proudest race, the Solar Aryan, renounced royalty, be- 
came a mendicant, and struck at the foundations of the 
odious institution, Caste, which for ages had oppressed 
India. He combined the popular Turanian ideas, athe- 
ism, hatred of caste, metempsychosis, and the oriental 
belief in the incarnation of truth, with Vedic morality. 
His life was one of great purity, he inculcated the 
highest moral virtues, chastity, temperance, self-control, 
patience, humility, forgiveness, truth, respect for parents, 
family and home. He was gentle, persuasive, fraternal, 
forbidding slander and gossip. His ten commandments 
are a rigid moral code, with no religious acknowledgment. 
" 1st. From the meanest insect up to man thou shalt 
kill no animal whatever. 

17 



258 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

2nd. Thou shalt not steal. 

3rd. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

4th. Thou shalt speak no word that is false. 

5 th. Thou shalt drink no wine or anything to intoxi- 
cate. 

6th. Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred, and bitter 
language. 

7th. Thou shalt not indulge in idle or vain talk. 

8th. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors goods. 

9th. Thou shalt not harbor pride, envy, revenge, or 
malice, nor desire the death or misfortune of thy neigh- 
bor. 

10th. Thou shalt not follow the doctrines of strange 
gods. 

This absence of religious duty to a people exhausted 
by the polytheism and immorality of Brahminism and 
Ophiolatry, and the presence of an ethical code which 
would satisfy the conscience, rendered the doctrine of 
Buddha most grateful and welcome. Nirvana, or salva- 
tion from evil, contemplated virtue, knowledge, self- 
denial. The times were ready for the enlightened man, 
and he was received joyfully. 

But upon sober second thought, the disciples of the 
new faith were not satisfied. There is an awful void in 
the soul when there is no God, and as soon as Buddha 
was dead, strange inconsistency, he was exalted to fill the 
vacancy ! It has been wittily said, " God made man in 
his image and in all the natural religions, God is made 
in the image of man," Buddha became an object of 
worship, and the Nirvana which he had attained at once 
was localized as the Buddhist heaven. These deficien- 
cies supplied, a place of punishment was afterward 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 259 

added, which in its material horrors rivals the Inferno 
of Dante. 

With these elements superadded to the original ideas ? 
yielding to many popular prejudices, reforming abuses, 
and meeting the necessities of the age, Buddhism now 
swept through the Asiatic continent like a mighty flood. 
Its founders firmly believed it would become the univer- 
sal faith, but " it has never crossed the European line." 
After a long struggle in the land of its birth, it was 
finally excluded from India, but proved a flourishing 
exotic in foreign soil, and it is now the prevalent religion 
in China, Japan, Siam, Thibet, Nepaul, Burmah, Tartary 
and Ceylon. 

• Its sacred books written originally in Sanscrit have 
been translated into the languages of all the countries 
which have adopted it. They are called the Triptaka or 
Three Baskets. The first of these treats of morality. 
The second and third contain the philosophy, metaphys- 
ics and discourses of Buddha. Many miscellaneous 
volumes have been added to the sacred writings, but I 
make no extracts, there being nothing in them of interest 
to the general reader. 

The great literary geniuses who have blest the world 
with their immortal productions, have found inspiration 
in religious sentiment and aspiration, in the hope of 
immortality, in the passion of human love, the social 
affections, the realm of the supernatural, the romance 
of history and tradition ; these with the varying as- 
pects of nature are the substratum of the finest liter- 
ature. But Buddhism, devoid of all such stimulating 
elements, ignoring God, denying passion and affection, 
teaching that existence is illusive evil, that passing 



260 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

events are simply phases in the revolution of an eternal 
wheel upon which the atom man hangs helpless and 
irresponsible, could produce but a lifeless melancholy 
literature, in which objectless ethics and transcendental 
philosophy are the only possible themes. The glow of 
poetry and the fervor of passion are extinguished by the 
dreary vacuum. In a desolate atomic waste, measure- 
less as its own Sakwallas, the aimless soul drifts in the 
elemental whirl, or floats in the darkness of uncreated 
infinite nature, " a speck of fog, vanishing in the azure of 
the past." * 

The same degeneration and change which mark the 
progress of all human institutions are apparent in that 
of the Buddha. The simplicity of the founder has dis- 
appeared. He enjoined no rites, worship, nor the build- 
ing of sacred edifices, but his followers having exalted 
him to a Deity have multiplied large and stately tem- 
ples. 

The relics of Buddha, the bones saved from the ashes, 
after his cremation, are preserved, in topes or shrines. 
One of his teeth, a piece of ivory two inches long, now 
in Ceylon, and for the possession of which a war has 
been actually waged, is enclosed in six cases, the outer 
one being of solid silver and six feet in height. The 
ceremonial and ritual of this worship have become very 
much complicated and are like that of the Romish 
Church. The chanting of prayers, incense, candles, 
beads, the priestly robes, crosses, mitres, cope and chap- 
let, the worship of saints, fasts, processions, holy water, 
litanies and confessions, are so exactly like those of 

* Prof. Tyndall. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 261 

Papacy, that the Jesuit priests, who first penetrated these 
countries as missionaries, declared in dismay, " That 
there was not a piece of dress nor a sacerdotal function 
nor a ceremony of the court of Rome, that the devil had 
not copied in this country.'' 

The grand lama in Thibet is a high priest or pope. 
There are monasteries and nunneries organized for the 
retirement of devotees. The common priests take vows 
similar to those of the Roman Catholic Church, celibacy, 
poverty and obedience. The monachism of the two re- 
ligions is also similar. According to their rules, "The 
professed Bhikkhu or monk was to shun all sexual inter- 
course of every kind, all home relationship was put away, 
he was to ignore the frown or favor of the world. His 
furniture was to consist of an almsbowl, a razor, a needle 
and a water strainer. His food should be only what he 
had received as alms, it should never be asked for, and 
always eaten before noon. He should never touch gold 
nor silver, and should avoid all luxury. His body was to 
be considered as a loathsome wound, his clothing simply 
as the bandages, and for this purpose, a piece of cloth 
cast up by the waves or blown away by the wind, or 
which had been used as a cover for the dead, was most 
desirable. He was to live in no substantial house, the 
most rigid were never to lie down, but sleep sitting at 
the foot of a tree, in a cave or cemetery. 

It has been thought that this remarkable coincidence 
with Christian outgrowth, must have been the result of 
contact with the early Nestorian Churches, but there is 
a mass of evidence to prove that their institutions ante- 
date Christianity." Some writers believe that China 
may be converted to Romanism, as the transition from 



262 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

Buddhism will be very slight, and the Catholic priests 
are so persevering. 

But the Buddhists are tolerant, they have no prejudice 
or hatred against those of another faith. " They have 
founded no Inquisition and only one religious war has 
darkened their history. ,, One of their number told Mr. 
Crawford, the missionary, that he believed all religions of 
the world were but branches of the true one. Another 
sent his son to the missionary school, because he thought 
Christianity would be a help to Buddhism." Its human- 
ity has had a very softening effect upon some of the 
savage tribes who have adopted it. 

It teaches the transmigration of the soul. Buddha 
himself struggled through twenty five million, six hundred 
thousand metempsychoses before he attained perfect 
bliss. 

The Buddhists burn their dead, but they have no 
bloody or cruel rites. Their altars are covered with 
flowers and leaves. 

Travellers commend their kindness and politeness. 
Mr. Malcolm, Baptist missionary says, " that in morality 
and good temper, the Burmese boatmen are greatly 
superior to those on our western waters. He never saw 
a quarrel nor heard a hard word from them. He saw 
thousands of them together on public occasions, and 
never saw an act of violence, a case of intoxication, nor 
an immodest act. Family affection is strong, women are 
more kindly treated than among Mahommedans and 
Brahmans, fathers are quite as fond of their daughters as 
of their sons, and the children are reverent to their 
parents." 

It is stated that during the construction of the eastern 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 263 

portion of the Union Pacific Railroad, which was effected 
by Irishmen, nominally Christians, rows and riots were 
of frequent occurrence and also that one hundred murders 
were perpetrated ; while on the western portion, where 
Chinese were the workmen, neither a riot nor a murder 
took place. This startling fact may give us food .for 
thought. 

Where there is such power of permanence and success 
there must be truth, and in the ethics of Buddhism we 
find it ; eternal truth and adaptation to human want ; 
but as a religion, it has two fatal defects. The first 
is the absence of a Deity. The Buddha or his image 
universally worshipped, is but a dull, sleepy, apotheo- 
sized man, born ages after the universe was created 
a god utterly inadequate to satisfy the soul yearn- 
ing for an eternal, all powerful, benevolent Being, to 
whom it can appeal in the emergencies of life and upon 
whom it can repose in the mysterious hour of dissolution, 
an instinctive demand of our higher nature, which all the 
arguments of philosophy and facts of science cannot abne- 
gate nor answer. 

The second grave deficiency is the absence of all 
moral responsibility. The motive for practising the 
virtues and humanities, is a purely selfish one. " How 
shall I attain merit ?" is the only inquiry. There being 
no obligation to God, the love of our fellow beings, their 
happiness or conversion, virtue, and charity, are intrinsi- 
cally of no importance ; they are motives of action, only as 
means by which Nirvana can be won. Faith, gratitude, 
benevolence, all the most exalted virtues are without in- 
centive, but the base one of selfishness, which can never 
be depended upon to hold a man firm to good principles. 



264 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

Thus we find there is no roof to this temple pointing 
to heaven, which we call faith in God, and responsibility 
to Him, no foundation deep in our nature, the love of 
virtue and holiness for its own sake, but only the bare 
upright walls and pillars of self-love and self-interest, 
which the tempest of misfortune or the earthquake of 
passion, may at any moment lay prostrate. 

" The system of Buddhism/' says Mr. Upham, who 
has made it a profound study, " rests upon the ruins of a 
former edifice, from which it derives no strength. The 
doctrine of the Nirvana and everlasting fate are too 
subtle and refined, for the check or control of the hopes 
and fears, much less the vices of man, though there is in 
it a germ of intellectual motive, not " swallowed and lost 
in the wide womb of uncreated night," which speaks of 
moral responsibility, and responds to the realities of 
eternity. Gladly does the soul turn from its feeble rays, 
to the bright efflux of all knowledge, the sun of righteous- 
ness, which has arisen to scatter the gloomy shades of 
superstition." 

Mrs. Leonowen, who was three years teacher in the 
harem of the King of Siam, has given in her writings, a 
striking illustration of the rule, that as men receive the 
truth so it moulds the character, in the contrast between 
the despotic monarch of that country, and its High 
Priest. Both were educated in a monastery, the King 
having remained in seclusion till he ascended the throne. 
But in him, every dark and ferocious passion tempest- 
uously bore sway. Mrs. Leonowen says, " No one can de 
scribe the gloom and horror of the king's harem, all 
natural feelings are repressed, silence, submission, self- 
constraint, suspicion, cunning and an ever vigilant fear, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 265 

take their place, with a constant terror of the tyrant who 
owns it. Here light and darkness are monstrously 
mixed, and the result is a glaring gloom, which is neither 
of day nor night, of life or death, of earth or, — yes, of 
hell ! When once the King was enraged, there was 
nothing to be done but to wait patiently until the storm 
was exhausted by its own fury, but it was horrible to 
witness such an abuse of power in one from whom there 
was no appeal." 

She gives numerous instances of the cruel incarcera- 
tion, scourging, and torturing even to death, of the help- 
less women in his harem, upon the most frivolous or 
false pretences. They are too harrowing and heart sick- 
ening to bear repetition. 

This man was a priest of one of the most humane 
and moral religions in the world, but over his life it had 
no controlling power. Yet he was no religious bigot, 
like Philip the second of Spain, and James the second of 
England, who made religious zeal the excuse for bar- 
barity. How thoroughly he understood and appreciated 
the doctrines of his religion, will be seen from the story 
he gave Mrs. Leonowen of the life of the High Priest of 
Siam ; a character to whom we turn with pleasure* for 
here we perceive a life of rare excellence and beauty, 
resulting from a sincere desire for religious truth, and a 
conscientious following of the light that was given." 

The King of Siam said of the High Priest: " He was 
a man of royal birth and untold riches. In his youth he 
felt such pity for the poor, the old, the sick, and the 
wretched, that he became melancholy, and after several 
years spent in the continual relief of the needy, he in a 
moment gave all his goods, ' all to feed the poor/ At 



266 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

thirty he became a priest For five years he had toiled 
as a gardener, because he could thus obtain a knowledge 
of the medicinal properties of plants and be a physician 
for the poor. But his life seemed to himself imperfect, 
and so he became a priest. This was sixty-five years 
ago, now he is ninety-five years old and I fear he has not 
yet found the truth and excellence he has so long sought 
for. But I know of no man greater than he. He is 
great in the Christian sense, loving, pitiful, forbearing, 
pure. His life exemplifies these qualities, and he is great 
in the Buddhist sense also, not loving life nor fearing 
death, desiring nothing the world can give, beyond the 
peace of a beautiful spirit/' 

Mrs. L. continues : " More than eighteen months 
after this story was given me, I received a summons from 
the King one evening just as the sun was trailing his 
last shadows through the porches of the palace. Some- 
what uneasy as to the nature of the summons, I resign- 
edly followed my guides to the Monastery of Watt Rajah. 
The sun had set in glory below the red horizon when I 
entered the monastery which adjoins the temple. The 
pages left me seated on a stone step and ran to announce 
my*£>resence to the King. A young man robed in pure 
white and bearing in one hand a small lighted taper, and 
a lily in the other, beckoned me to follow him, and as we 
traversed the long low passages that separate the cells 
of the priests, the weird sound of voices chanting the 
hymns of the Buddhist liturgy, fell upon the ear. 

As the page approached the threshold of one of the 
cells, he whispered to me to put off my shoes, at the 
same time prostrating himself in abject humility before 
the door where he remained without changing his post- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 267 

ure. I stooped inyoluntarily and anxiously scanned the 
scene within. There sat the King, and at a sign from 
him I entered and sat down. 

On a rude pallet about six and a half feet long and 
not more than three feet wide, with a bare block of wood 
for a pillow, lay a dying priest. A simple garment of 
faded yellow covered his person, his hands were folded 
on his breast, his head was bald, his slight remaining 
hair had been shorn from his shrunken temples and eye- 
brows, his feet were bare and exposed, his eyes were 
fixed in solemn contemplation. No sign of disquiet was 
there, no external suggestion of pain or trouble. I was 
at once startled and puzzled. Was he dying or acting ? 

In the attitude of his person, in the expression of his 
face, I beheld sublime reverence, repose, absorption. At 
his right hand was a lighted taper in a golden candle- 
stick, on the left a dainty golden vase with white lilies 
freshly gathered. ; One of the lilies had been laid on his 
breast and contrasted touchingly with the dingy, faded 
yellow of his robe. Just over his heart lay a coil of un- 
spun cotton thread, which being divided into seventy- 
seven filaments, was distributed to the hands of priests 
who crowded the cell. Before each priest was a lighted 
taper and a lily, symbols of faith and purity. From time 
to time one or another of that solemn company raised his 
voice and chanted strangely, and all the choir responded 
in unison. 

First voice : " Thou excellence of Perfection, I take 
refuge in thee." All, — " Thou who art named either 
God, Buddha or Mercy, I take refuge in thee." 

First voice : " Thou Holy One, I take refuge in thee." 
All, — " Thou truth, I take refuge in thee/' 



268 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

As the sound of the prayer fell on his ear, a flicker- 
ing smile lit up the pale countenance of the dying man 
with a mild radiance, as though the charity and humility 
of his nature, in departing, left the light of their love- 
liness there. Riches, station, honor, kindred, he had 
resigned them all more than a half century since, in his 
love for the poor and his longing after virtue. Here was 
none of the vagueness, or incoherence of a delirious 
death. He was going to a clear eternal calm ; with a 
smile of perfect peace, he said: u To your Majesty I 
commend the poor, and this that remains of me, I give 
to be burned." 

Gradually his breathing became more laborious, and 
turning with great effort to the King, he said : " I will go 
now." Instantly the priests joined in a loud psalm or 
chant, "Thou sacred One, I take refuge in thee." A 
few minutes more and the spirit of the High Priest of 
Siam had calmly breathed itself away. My heart and 
eyes were full of tears, yet I was comforted. By what 
hope I know not, for I dared not question it." 

Ah ! have we not read our Bible through the distort- 
ing lenses of self-conceit and bigotry ? Let us remove 
them for a moment that we may see clearly. 

" After this, I beheld and lo, a great multitude that 
no man could number of all nations, and kindred and 
people and tongues, stood before the throne and before 
the Lamb, clothed with white robes and with palms in 
their hands," and more impressive still, the words of our 
Saviour : " And they shall come from the East and from 
the West, from the North and from the South, and shall 
sit down in the Kingdom of God." 

A new light shines forth from these words " And 



r FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 269 

they shall come from the East ! " Yes, Zoroaster and 
Confucius, Gotama, and the High Priest of Siam " shall 
sit down in the Kingdom of God." 

Oh let not the awful finale be added: "And you 
yourselves shall be thrust out." 



CHAPTER XI. 
EGYPT, (THE LAND OF CANALS.) 

" The Greeks are novices in antiquity." 

ABOUT fifty years ago a stone tablet was found in the 
Nile Valley with three inscriptions, one in the sacred 
hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptian priests, one in the 
characters used by her common people, and one in the 
well known Greek letters. It was thought possible that 
these inscriptions might have one meaning, and with 
this slight lever to aid him, Jean F. Champollion, the 
French archaeologist, opened the arcanum of Egyptian 
antiquity. 

Shading our eyes from the kaleidoscopic whirl of this 
busy age, let us step within the petrified wilderness of 
wonders and gaze with awe down the receding corridors 
of time interminable, till the scene closes, in the dark 
night of a dreamless past. 

We are in an unknown world. The great pyramids 

point upwards to the cloudless heavens, the mysterious 

obelisk glitters in the sun, giant Memnon sends forth his 

clinking music to greet the god of day, the awful forms 

of the sphinxes confuse and puzzle us, stony faces, sweet 

and solemn, look forth from the lofty rocks. Karnac, 

majestic in outline and delicate in finish, attracts us like 

a magnet. We sacrilegiously enter the temple, standing 
270 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 271 

beneath its forest of stately pillars, sculptured with 
strange devices, a spell comes over us, the sound of 
drums and trumpets is heard afar : we hide our dimin- 
ished heads behind a gigantic column, as a crowd pours 
forth from the city of a hundred gates, bearing the sacred 
ark and offerings to Osiris. 

The sound of sweet voices, the tinkling of cymbals, 
the music of harps, the odor of flowers and incense 
mingle with the tread of the soldiers and murmur of the 
mighty crowd, as they file in, under the lofty roof of the 
temple. They halt before the image of Osiris ; dark 
subtle looking men in flowing white garments issue from 
the recesses of the temple. Flambeaux wave in their 
hands, burning censers fill the air with intoxicating fumes, 
a musty odor of spices and decay is wafted from the city of 
the dead. Wild, unearthly voices are heard, they rouse an 
unnatural power, the water is changed to blood, the sticks 
upon the ground are changed to serpents, thunder and hail 
distract the air and fire runs along the earth. Our eyes are 
closed with horror, oblivion takes possession of the soul ! 

When we recover, the scene has changed, the golden 
rays of the setting sun stream over the landscape, a thou- 
sand men are dragging a huge stone from its native bed, 
the enginery thunders along the high causeway, swarthy 
laborers with irrigating machines raise the water of the 
Nile, which gently oozes over the grain fields, gay boats 
and light laughter float along the sluggish stream, the 
purple mountain fades, the lotus trembles on the water, 
and we remember that we are in ancient Egypt. 

I said China was aged, but she seems now like a well 
preserved matron who sits in dignified passiveness, tran- 
quilly sipping her tea and discoursing of the days of her 



272 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



youth, for turning from her placid figure I behold a vision 
of old Egypt, hoary and " struck with eld," seated upon 
a granite rock of which he has become a petrified portion, 
and pointing downwards with stony finger to the ruins 
of ten thousand years ! * 

There is reason to believe that when the wild Mon- 
gols scrambled over the mountains of Tartary and be- 
held the rivers and forests of Sin, which their descend- 
ants were one day to make so fair, another branch of the 
same strange family were already settled in Egypt with 
perfected civilization, arts and sciences, and as ever, with 
the abomination of Ophiolatry ! 

The earliest history of Egypt is that written by 
Manetho, a learned Egyptian priest, three hundred years 
B. C. His extraordinary dates were at first discredited, 
for they make the union of the kingdoms of Upper and 
Lower Egypt under a monarch called Menes to have 
been 5004 B. C. ! But the deciphered inscriptions con- 
firmed the accuracy of his chronology and table of dy-' 
nasties. Statues have also been found which bear date , 
4880 B. C. The statues of a king and queen, as also one 
of a public officer, now in the museum of M. Mariette, 
in Egypt, are beautiful specimens of sculpture. They 
are of painted limestone, the individual character of the 
heads, (Caucasian in type,) and the anatomical accuracy 
of the bodies and limbs, compare favorably with the 
finest specimens of modern art. The daisies and pansies 
painted upon the carved ribbon which binds the queen's 
hair, are as perfect in color and shading as if done yes- 
terday by the hand of a master. The eyes are a miracle 
of a lost art ; they are set in bronze eyelids, are of col- 
ored crystals, with mosaic rays in the iris, and a diamond 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 273 

or other crystal in the pupil, which gives them a lifelike 
sparkle. These wonderful statues are near seven thou- 
sand years old, but they do not represent the crude art 
of beginners. Judging from the progress made during 
historic times, ages must have passed before such perfec- 
tion could be attained. Who possessed the skill that 
could achieve these models of sculpture ? The artists 
were contemporary with Menes, or Amon-ei, as it is 
written, " one who walks with God." There are legends 
which may assist us in answering this inquiry. Before 
the days of Menes it is said, " Egypt was governed by 
the gods/* and Sanscrit and Chaldean traditions speak of 
a mighty and highly civilized nation with powerful mon- 
archs, whose kingdom stretched from the Indies, through 
the peninsula of Arabia and southward, through the 
Nile valley, which before its conquest, " was inhabited by 
impure beings." A great king, named Ait, overwhelmed 
the Daityas or evil beings and protected the Devatas or 
good people. A great monarchy flourished near the 
mountains of the Moon in which the Nile had its rise ; 
the country was called the Moon land. The story of 
the early struggle is also preserved in the Egyptian myth 
of Osiris, the Judge of the Dead. 

A very ancient Greek writer says he found the story 
written " in very old characters." 

" Amon, King of Arabia, married Rhea, the sister of 
Chronos, King of Italy, Sicily, and Northern Africa. 
Afterward, Amon became the father of Dionysus (Osiris) 
by Almathea, and Rhea, his wife, left him, in jealous 
rage, and married Chronos, her brother, who then waged 
war with Amon and defeated him. When Dionysus 
was grown and educated, he espoused his father Anion's 

18 



274 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

cause, defeated Chronos, dethroned him, and placed his 
son, Zeus, in his place." Another account makes Dio- 
nysus himself the King of Egypt, and afterward, being 
killed by Typhon, the evil being, he was deified as 
Osiris, the Judge of the Dead. In these myths, where 
all the names are those of deities and are symbolic, we 
find reference to the period called " the reign of the 
gods," and to the great religious war carried on in their 
name, in the earliest ages after the Flood, perhaps 
the very war spoken of by the old Zend writers. It 
is stated in Gen. ioth that Ham had one son whose 
family were named Mizraim. Mizra was the most 
ancient name of Egypt, and from other names still pre- 
served, it is certain that three of this family, — Ludim, 
Ananim and Naptuhim, — were the primogenitors of tribes 
in that country. The sons of Magog were always in sym- 
pathy with the Hamites, and it is probable they amalga- 
mated with, or preceded them in this emigration, as it is 
certain they did in other countries. The skulls of the 
oldest mummies, it is said, show a mixture of African 
conformation, perhaps from a union of the serpent-wor- 
shipping Asiatics and the ophiolatrous negroes, " the im- 
pure beings" spoken of by the Sanscrit writers, who 
would naturally thus describe the hated idolators. 
The oldest Egyptian hieroglyphs are not the inven- 
tion of a south people ; the forms of the animals and 
birds are those of a cold country. 

From these facts and traditions we may infer that the 
serpent-worshipping northern hordes had priority in 
Egypt as in Asia, Europe and America, and the wonder- 
ful civilization there as elsewhere, may have been the 
wisdom for which they bartered their souls. A war car- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 275 

ried on by the Aryan and Semitic tribes against these 
people would, in Oriental phrase, be " a war of the gods." 

Geology attests the great antiquity of Egypt. Once 
an arm of the sea or a deep morass, the land has been 
slowly formed by deposits brought down by the Nile. 
The narrow valley where they have gradually hardened, 
is now but fourteen miles in width. A very thorough 
examination of this alluvium has brought from a great 
depth, brick, pottery, an image of burnt clay, a copper 
knife, and other relics. The uniform character of the 
mud makes it probable that the deposit has been also uni- 
form, and that, for the last three thousand years, has 
been about three and a half inches in a century. A 
statue of King Rameses, set up 1260 B. C, has now 
nine feet and four inches of alluvium above the base. 
The deposit below is thirty feet, which would make the 
age of the valley thirteen thousand five hundred and 
fifty-four years, but from the greater pressure upon the 
lower strata, it is thought, the time of the first deposit 
was still more remote. Within four inches of the bot- 
tom, pieces of pottery indicate occupation by man. 
We may well believe what an old priest told Solon 
when he visited Egypt twenty-five hundred years ago : 
u You Greeks are novices in antiquity. You speak of 
one deluge, there have been many. You are ignorant of 
what passed in days of old. The history of eight thou- 
sand years is deposited in our sacred books, but I can 
tell you what our fathers did nine thousand years ago. I 
refer to their institutions, laws, and brilliant achieve- 
ments" 

Menes, the first historical king, was, like the first em- 
peror of China, a great engineer. He turned the Nile 



276 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

into the middle of the valley and protected Memphis, by 
a dyke, from the annual floods. From the consolidation 
of the two kingdoms till the conquest by Alexander, 
there were twenty-six dynasties, some of them lasting six 
hundred years ! 

During the 15th dynasty, Egypt was conquered by a 
warlike people from the east shore of the Mediterranean, 
called Hyksos, or Shepherds. Their kings adopted the 
high title of former monarchs, Phrah or Pharaoh, " son 
of the sun." During this dynasty the Hebrews came 
into Egypt, and the king who ''arose that know not 
Joseph," was a descendant of the native princes, who led 
a revolt against the usurpers and expelled them. The 
19th dynasty was the most brilliant of Egyptian history. 
Their conquests were pushed into Asia and Ethiopia, 
they added to the wonders of Thebes and Karnac, built 
cities, carved the great Sphinx, and erected the giant 
statue of Memnon, which, it was said, emitted musical 
sounds at sunrise. The mystery is explained by the fact 
that the music was never heard before an earthquake 
which shattered the statue, and never after it was repair- 
ed. The heavy night dews of that rainless climate fell 
into the fissures of the stone, and the rapid evaporation 
caused by the hot rays of the morning sun, produced the 
sound which superstition readily converted into music. 

The grandest monarch of this dynasty, the third after 
the expulsion of the Shepherds, was Rameses second, 
the Sesostris of Greek writers. It was during the bril- 
liant reign of his son that Moses was born, and in the 
court of the proudest monarch in the world he was 
brought up as a son. What bitterness must Rameses 
have felt at the lofty demands of the foundling Hebrew, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 277 

once the pride of his court ! and how great his humilia- 
tion at the signal defeat suffered by the combined science 
and magic of the most learned priests in the world, of 
which he was the worshipped head. 

The scriptural account of the hardships of the He- 
brews at this time is confirmed by a papyrus roll recent- 
ly discovered, containing the report of Rameses' officer. 
It reads thus : " May my lord be pleased, I have dis- 
tributed food to the soldiers and the Hebrews dragging 
stones to the great city, Rameses-meia-mouni. I gave 
them food monthly." In Exodus we find, " They built 
for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pythom and Raamses." 

Another papyrus says : " The people have erected 
twelve buildings. They made the tale of bricks daily till 
they were finished. In a picture the Hebrews are seen 
toiling under the lash of the owner, and putting straw into 
the bricks to give them tenacity. After millenniums of 
silence the rocks and tombs have spoken to authenticate 
our sacred record. While the Hindoos ignored the pres- 
ent as unworthy of thought, the Egytians recorded, not 
only the great events, but most minute detail of everyday 
life." 

Cambyses of Persia conquered Egypt 525 B.C., and 
Alexander, everywhere triumphant, took possession of the 
country in the 4th century B.C. This sagacious monarch, 
impressed with the importance of Hellenizing Egypt, 
built at a convenient point near the Mediterranean and 
Red Sea, the city which bears his name. At his death 
this part of his kingdom was given to his General, 
Ptolemy Sotor, who founded the famous Alexandrian 
library and museum, finally lost to the world through 
the fanaticism of the Mohammedans. Cleopatra, the 



278 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

beautiful Queen, was the last of the Ptolemys, for Caesar 
took possession of Egypt 30 B.C., and it remained for 
three hundred years under Roman sway, and old Egypt 
after this foreign subjugation, declined and died. 

The ancient religion of this marvellous country is 
without doubt Hamite in its origin. It combines and ex- 
ceeds in an exaggerated degree, the nature worship of In- 
dia and Assyria. Every natural form and principle of na- 
ture was an object of worship. The heavenly bodies, the 
earth, the river Nile, its water, mud and slime, man, 
animals, plants, reptiles, insects, all the forces of nature, 
animate and inanimate, were sacred, and were partakers 
of divine honors, and as if this were not enough, mixed 
and monstrous forms, winged serpents, winged bulls and 
lions, to which were affixed human heads, hawk headed 
men and other distorted shapes, swelled the bursting 
pantheon. 

The Egyptians were the most pious people of history. 
Every day and every act was consecrated to religion. 
Their very letters were so full of sacred symbols that they 
could not be used for secular purposes, language had to be 
divided, the hieratic, or sacred writing, being used by the 
priests, and a common form called Demotic adapted to or- 
dinary purposes. Religious duty was the one object in 
life. Sacrifices, rites, holy days, processions, fasts and 
festivals were incessant. The gods were innumerable; 
chief and minor deities ; the same god in many forms ; 
gods worshipped in some cities and neglected in others ; 
gods known and unknown. " If you enter a temple," 
says Clement, " A priest advances with a solemn mien 
singing a hymn. He raises a curtain to let you see the 
deity, and lo ! he appears, a cat, a crocodile, a snake, or 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 279 

some other noxious animal. The God of the Egyptians, 
a wild beast wallowing on a carpet." It appears that the 
EgyDtians in their intense anxiety to fulfil their religious 
duty had adopted every religious idea as soon as they ob- 
tained it from other nations. 

The Doctrines of the Unity, Trinity and Incarnation 
are certainly represented in the faith of ancient Egypt, 
but monstrously mixed, distorted and overshadowed by 
gross idolatry. The educated priest believed in a con- 
cealed deity, the Absolute Spirit, who was supposed to 
have no form. To the people he was not an object of wor- 
ship. All the other gods were emanations from this being. 
Heredotus mentions eight gods of the first order, twelve 
of the second, and seven of the third. 

The first in rank was Am or Ra, apparently identical 
with the Assyrian deity of the same name. He represents 
the male principle of creation or the sun, or has a serpent 
symbol, Urei, or sacred Asps. His name was often as- 
sumed by the King, Ra-meses Pha-ra-oh, and by the priests 
as Potiphe-ra. His image, a ram's head, was painted dark 
blue. He was the presiding diety of Thebes and Heliopolis. 
The god Ptah appears to have represented the idea of fire 
and truth, supposed to have invented science, and was re- 
vered at Memphis. Num, or Nuf, was the generative pow- 
er of water. Leb and his wife Nepthe, were time and 
space, their children were Osiris and Isis. Osiris the 
judge of the dead, was the most important diety, he mar- 
ried his sister Isis, and their child Horus represents air, or 
the mediator between creation and destruction. The myths 
connected with these deities evidently had their birth in 
the Nile valley. The emblem of Osiris is the sun, the viv- 
ifying power of the universe, he is accompanied by the ser- 



28o FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

pent, and Phallic emblems were introduced into his wor- 
ship. He was the saviour and benefactor of mankind, and 
was destroyed by the malignant Typhon, but after death 
went to reside in the underground world, the region of the 
dead ; here he receives the souls of those who have de- 
parted from the upper regions, and awards their fate, till 
at some future day he will overcome the wicked Typhon 
and rescue the world from his power. 

Osiris was universally worshipped, and at Philae, 
where he was supposed to have been buried, his rites 
were celebrated with the mysteries. His image is found 
on many tombs and monuments. Isis attends him. 
Horus, always a child, symbol of immortality, sits near him 
on a lotus flower, or on his sceptre. It was deemed pro- 
fanity to utter his name, and the most sacred oath was, 
" I swear by him who was buried at Philae/' He is called 
the Lord of Life, the Revealer of truth, the Eternal Ruler. 
His priests were celebrated for great learning, and his 
worship ante-dates, hundreds of years, the visit of Abraham 
to Egypt. 

Thoth, the Greek Hermes, was the inventor of the 
alphabet, astronomy, music and law. 

Typhon, the spirit of evil, was the god of darkness and 
eclipse. 

Neith was the highest goddess, and as the feminine 
principle of creation, reigned with Ra. She presided over 
wisdom, philosophy, military tactics and morality. Her 
city was Sais, and her temples exceeded all others in col- 
ossal grandeur. Her inscriptions were imposing. One 
of them is thus translated by Champollion, " I am all that 
has been, all that is, and all that will be. No mortal has 
ever raised the veil that conceals me. My offspring is the 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 281 



sun." We recognize her name in the daughter of Poti- 
phera, Aseneith, wife of Joseph the Hebrew ruler. 

To Isis, the wife of Osiris, was attributed all the form 
of good. She was greatly reverenced, and had thousands 
of titles, a favorite one was "The Potent, the Mother 
Goddess." Her symbol was an egg. She was a bene- 
factor of man, and the goddess of the healing art. After 
death her soul was transferred to Sirius, the dog star, 
where she presides over the annual inundation of the 
Nile. Her festival and mysteries were celebrated at 
Memphis with pompous rites. Her most pleasing image 
was that of a beautiful woman, crowned with Lotus blos- 
soms and shrouded in a blue veil. 

Among numerous subordinate deities were Canopus 
god of waters, and Nilus the spirit of their river, Mok- 
hitsslime, Kham and Ranno, who presided over gardens 
and vineyards, besides genii and spirits innumerable. 

About fifty animals were sacred, among which, were 
the serpent, the cat, crocodile, ram, ape, hippopotamus, 
the ibis, the hawk, the scarabeus, or beetle, supposed to 
represent immortality. The cow, as among eastern na- 
tions, was most sacred ; some of the gods were born of a 
cow. Isis was of this favored number. Apis, the sacred 
bull of Memphis, was a very important deity. His statue, 
a recumbent colossus, was eighty-five feet high ! The 
sacred bull must be black, with a white triangle on his 
forehead, a half moon on his back, and a bunch like a 
beetle under his tongue. He was kept in a splendid 
temple, waited upon with more care than the king, 
attended by priestly pomp in his promenade, and when 
he died all Egypt went into mourning ; his body was 
embalmed and continued to receive divine honors. The 



282 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

embalmed bulls were called Osir Hapi, (Greek, Serapis,) 
and the place of their sepulture was called the Sera- 
pium. From some curious caprice, if the sacred bull 
did not die before twenty-five years he was killed. After 
the death of an apis, a new god was sought, and when the 
proper marks were found the people put on their most 
elegant attire and gave themselves up to the wildest joy. 

The deification of kings after death was so much 
a matter of course that some of the Pharaohs celebrated 
their own apotheosis, thus realizing posthumous glory. 
The learned priests of Egypt probably saw in this uni- 
versal worship, symbols of great though hidden truths, 
but the common people kept in ignorance for political 
purposes, were literal worshippers of the objects before 
them. 

Priest-craft was never carried to a greater extent than 
in Egypt, where the priests were the highest caste, 
and their privileges were rigidly enforced, though not 
with the cruelty and despotism of India. They filled 
not only the sacerdotal offices but were the administra- 
tors of justice and the only physicians. They embodied 
the learning of the country. The King could not be 
anointed till he had become initiated into the subtle 
mysteries of the craft. They wore white linen robes 
when performing their official duty, and where compelled 
to observe most scrupulous cleanliness. They submitted 
to a rigid ceremonial, restricted themselves in dress, 
diet and indulgence of appetite, and labored assiduously 
in their duties. They lived in great simplicity, mostly 
upon vegetables, drank no wine and married but one 
wife. 

The sacrifices were similar to those prescribed by the 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE, 283 

Mosaic canon, and some animal was occasionally con- 
demned like the scape goat of the Hebrews to bear the 
misfortunes of the country. 

The year was filled with joyful and mournful festivals. 
The most sacred ordinances were the Mysteries, little 
understood outside of the priesthood. The initiation 
was protracted and severe, including a long fast and pro- 
found study. " Sublime pageantry dazzled the populace 
during the celebration of the mysteries, midnight suns, 
fiery serpents, visions of the gods," and those enchant- 
ments referred to in the Bible, exhibitions of the scien- 
tific skill of the learned and adroit priests, but Moses, 
thoroughly initiated into the craft, surpassed them, being 
aided by the Divine Spirit. Their knowledge of the 
mysteries of nature may have been greater than we at 
present possess, a knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, 
magnetism, electricity and mechanics, by which they 
practiced magic and divination, and seemed possessed of 
prophetic power, though the learned German comment- 
ator Kurtz, inclines to the opinion that an evil, supernat- 
ural influence was felt by all the ancient magicians. The 
priests of Egypt, unlike those of other countries, exer- 
cised their power mercifully. Egypt seems to have been 
a fairly happy, well governed country, and the people 
amiable and honest. The gods partaking, as in all the 
natural religions, of the character of the people, were also 
gentle and well disposed to men. Their images, when 
they have a human countenance, represent them serene, 
solemn, and sweet in expression ; blood sacrifices were 
rare, and that of human victims almost unknown. 

Lenormant sums up their religion so difficult to be 
understood, as " a strange and inextricable mixture of sub- 



284 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

lime truths (vestiges more or less obliterated of primitive 
revelation) with metaphysical and cosmical ideas, often 
confused, always grandiose, a refined morality, an abject 
worship, and the coarsest popular superstitions. ,, 

The Egyptians, who, from many striking coincidences, 
must have borrowed from or bestowed upon the Hindoos 
their ideas, were like them, believers in the transmigra- 
tion of the soul. The sacred books of Thoth, which con- 
tained the laws, science and theology of Egypt, have 
been destroyed, but a papyrus was recently found in a 
tomb which the most learned Egyptologists pronounce 
as being of the remotest antiquity and probably an ex- 
tract from the Sacred Books. It is the Funeral Ritual, 
and is a minute description of the condition of the soul 
from the moment of death till the final judgment. 

Immediately after death the soul holds a long parley 
with the gatekeeper of Hades, enumerating his own vir- 
tues, in which he is aided by the priest and good spirits. 
If his good deeds are insufficient he is refused admission 
and doomed to annihilation, But if he is accounted 
worthy, he receives from Osiris pei mission to pass the 
threshold. He then enters Kar Neter, the land of the 
dead, penetrates the subterranean region, ^nd beholds 
the dazzling glory of its sun, sings a hymn to its super- 
natural light and sets out upon a long pilgrimage. To 
sustain the soul in this protracted journey he must have 
knowledge ; this seems a Hindoo idea. An exposition 
of the Egyptian Faith is provided, so diffuse and obscure 
that before it ends, the original clue seems entirely lost. 
Then follow long prayers for his body which is in process 
of embalming, which process is supposed to facilitate his 
passage to the Elysian Fields, his final resting place. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 285 

After this he presses the sacred beetle to his heart, and 
enters the gloomy realm of Typhon, where a dreadful 
and exhausting combat ensues, from which he comes off 
victorious, and after a much needed repose, he journeys 
to the first gate of heaven, through which by divine aid 
he passes and experiences a most remarkable series of 
transformations. 

After this trial the soul is united to the embalmed 
body, and with a guide book, given him by Thoth, con- 
ductor of souls, he reaches a subterranean river, and 
attempts to cross. Here the Typhonic powers again in- 
terfere and he has a fierce struggle before he can get in- 
to the right boat. When at length he is safely seated, 
the boatman examines him to ascertain whether he has 
knowledge enough to cross the Elysian Fields. " What 
is my name ?" says the rudder. "The Enemy of Apis 
is thy name." " Tell me my name/' says the rope. " The 
hair with which Anubis binds the folds of the wrapper.'' 
" Tell me my name," says the stake. " The Lord of the 
Earth is thy name." Arrived at the Elysian Fields, he 
finds a subterranean Egypt, a duplication of his old 
home, where everything is spiritually leproduced, where 
even Osiris is raising the heavenly grain for the bread 
of knowledge. 

Now comes the last awful trial. By means of a clue 
the embodied soul enters a Labyrinth and after many 
windings penetrates to the Judgment Hall of Osiris who 
sits upon a throne ; by his side stand forty two terrible 
assessors who are to try his character, and to each of 
whom he must give an answer to a test question and also 
give a strict account of his life, all his acts of commission 
and omission. 



286 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

This Apology as it is called, shows a high moral 
standard and a practice of the deeper and severer virtues, 
as will be seen from the following extract in which the 
soul vindicates itself before the Judge of the Dead. fc< I 
have not afflicted any, I have not told falsehoods, I have 
not been idle, I have not murdered, I have not committed 
fraud, I have not injured the images of the gods, I have 
not taken scraps of the bandages of the dead, I have not 
committed adultery, I have not cheated by false weights, 
I have not kept milk from sucklings, I have not caught 
the sacred birds, I have not boasted or stolen, I have not 
counterfeited, nor killed sacred beasts, nor blasphemed, 
nor refused to hear the truth, nor despised God in my 
heart. Again he says he has 'Moved God, given bread 
to the hungry, water to the thirsty, garments to the 
naked and an asylum to the abandoned." On one tomb 
of a king it is said, " I lived in truth and fed my soul 
with justice. What I did to men, was done in peace, and 
how I loved God, God and my heart will know." An- 
other inscription says, " I was a wise man and my soul 
loved God. I was a brother to the great men, a father 
to the humble, and was never a mi^:hief-maker." A 
king says in an inscription, " I invoke thee, O my father 
Amun, I am in the midst of a throng of unknown tribes 
and alone. But Amun is better to me than thousands of 
archers and millions of horsemen. Amun will prevail 
over the enemy." 

After the protracted examination before Osiris is 
finished, the heart of the man is placed in the balances 
with truth, and if not found wanting, the joyful sentence 
is pronounced and the soul enters the realms of happiness, 
but if guilty of inexcusable faults, he is delivered into the 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 287 

hands of a frightful monster, or decapitated upon the 
block of Hades. If his crimes are unpardonable, after 
terrible torment, he is annihilated. 

The wanderings and trials of the accepted soul before 
it enters the place of bliss occupies a period of three 
thousand years. 

This circumstantial belief in future reward and 
punishment, with a high standard of morality, induced a 
conscientious, humane, gentle and somewhat melancholy 
type of character in the ancient Egyptians. Even in 
their gayest moments, and when the revel was at its 
height, a skeleton crowned with garlands was brought 
before them, or the image of a corpse in a coffin, that for 
a moment they might pause and remember that they 
were mortal. 

Their cruelty to the Hebrews during the latter por- 
tion of their stay in Egypt, arose from the fact that they 
came from the same country, and pursued the same oc- 
cupation as did the usurping Hyksos, a jealous fear of 
their growing importance and numbers, induced the op- 
pressive persecution. 

In consequence of the belief that the progress of the 
soul through Hades would be facilitated by a careful 
preservation of the body, the process of embalming was 
.adopted. This was done by removing the intestines and 
filling the cavities of the body with essential oils and 
spices and swathing it in linen bandages. The appear- 
ance of a mummny is revolting. The flesh is dried, 
shrunken and black, with hardly a vestige of humanity 
remaining. These mummies were laid in under- 
ground cells or rock chambers and in the Pyramids ; 
often enclosed in beautiful coffins called sarcophagi. The 



288 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

sacred animals were also embalmed. Belzoni found 
entire tombs filled with embalmed cats folded in red and 
white linen. The sacred bulls were magnficently en- 
tombed. 

How strangely diverse are the ideas of the great 
human family. The Persians left the bodies of the be- 
loved dead to be torn by wild beasts, the Hindus con- 
signed theirs to the sacred stream or the devouring 
flame, the Christian reverently lays the mortal part from 
which the soul has fled upon the passive bosom of 
Mother Earth, and the Egyptian, with infinite care and 
expense, preserved the worn out frame, the cast off shell, 
and placed it in a mansion grander than that which it 
had occupied during its life. 

I would gladly describe the wonders of Egypt, but 
that would fill a volume. 

Who built the pyramids, mountains of masonry ? 
One of them measures 800 feet square, and contains 
eighty five millions cubic feet of stone. Herodotus 
states that hills were levelled before they were raised, 
that stones were brought eight miles on a causeway fifty 
feet broad, and in some places forty feet high, one hun- 
dred thousand men were employed ten years in polishing 
and carving the stones for this causeway alone. Who 
raised the one hundred and forty pillars of the Hall of 
Karnac, or built the three thousand chambers of the 
Labyrinth so like the subterranean temples of the East ? 
The great human headed lion, the andro-sphinx, is one 
hundred and eighty eight feet long and sixty three feet 
from the breast to the top of the head, it measures one 
hundred and two feet around the forehead, carved from 
the heart of a mountain, the fragments of which were 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 289 

removed to augment its solitary grandeur ? The earth 
in the vicinity of Memphis, old before Abraham visited 
Egypt, is pierced with catacombs or chambers of the 
dead for twenty miles, receptacles for the mummies of 
that city alone. Who built the avenue of Sphinxes, or 
the artificial lake which receives the excess of water 
during the annual inundation of the Nile ? The Persians 
at the time of the conquest found twenty thousand books 
on literature alone, and some old tombs are sacred to the 
memory of the chiefs of books or librarians. The ink on 
the rolls, in many cases, is made of nitrate of silver, and 
the oldest dial found at Pompeii was calculated, not for 
that latitude but that of Memphis or Heliopolis. 

The bright and busy inventors have passed away. 
The toiling thousands rest in the long slumber of the 
tomb. Hosea said truly, "Egypt shall gather them up, 
Memphis shall bury them." The prophecy of Ezekiel is 
fulfilled, " I will destroy the idols and cause the images 
to cease out of the land of Noph." 

To the discoveries in this marvel of nations, there 
seems to be no end. The drifting sands of the desert 
have covered the w r onders of the world ; and the mysteries 
thus concealed, the puny men of this generation are 
toilsomely striving to unveil. From time to time we are 
startled at the report of some new discovery older and 
more wonderful than the preceeding one, till we are 
ready to exclaim with the man in Richter's dream, " I 
will go no further, for the spirit of man acheth with this 
infinity, I will hide me from " the discoveries of the 
archaeologist, " for end, I see there is none ! " 

It is difficult to form a satisfactory opinion of this 
anomalous country or its religion, considered so important 

19 



290 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

that a separate class of scientists have devoted their lives 
to this specialty. Among the ancients who made Egypt 
a study, for it was old Egypt to them, are Herodotus, Juve- 
nal, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plato, Manetho, Josephus 
and the early Christian fathers, and among the moderns ; 
Champollion, Lepsius, Mariette, Sharpe, Wilkinson, 
Bunsen and Brugseh, and many other eminent schol- 
ars, but notwithstanding all this research " the vast 
fabric of Egyptian wisdom, its deep theologies, its 
mysterious symbolism, its majestic art, its wonderful 
science, remain as its mummies and tombs remain, an 
enigma, exciting and baffling our curiosity." l Religions, 
like nations and individuals, have birth, development, 
maturity, decrepitude and dissolution, and their duration 
and vitality are proportioned in a great degree, to the 
measure of God's truth which they contain. In that of 
ancient Egypt, which perished more than a thousand 
years ago, there was no doubt much humanity and moral 
excellence, an idea, though fearfully overshadowed, of 
the omnipotent One, and a firm practical belief in the 
immortality of the soul, but the theological idea, well 
understood by the few learned priests, was hidden from 
the masses who were their dupes and victims. It was a 
system of deception and priestcraft doomed to final 
decay. 

A candid review of the faith of ancient Egypt cannot 
fail to strengthen our conviction that the religion of the Bible 
is of more than human origin. The elements of vitality, 
perpetuity, progress and catholicity are nowhere else to 
be found. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the 



1 J. T. Clarke. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 291 



Egyptians, he could more than match them in divination, 
he understood well their theology, but the very first com- 
mand he gave his nation was, " Thou shalt have no other 
God but Jehovah, saith the Lord. Thou shalt make no 
graven image or likeness of anything in heaven or earth, 
or the waters under the earth, to bow before, or worship/' 
His moral code admitted no exemptions. The compre- 
hensive " Thou shalt not " included all ages, sexes, and 
stations. " Thou shalt not bear false witness " was as 
binding upon learned priests, as it was upon humble 
serfs, and as it is upon every person who hears it, in this 
year of our Lord, 1876. 

All that was true in Egyptian religion, lives to-day 
embodied in that of Christ, which in its universal applica- 
bility, its spirituality, all-embracing charity, and enforce- 
ment of truth, contains the germ of everlasting life. 

The most attractive feature of the ancient faith we 
have been contemplating, is the clearly defined doctrine 
of the immortality of the soul, and its reunion with the 
body, though even here it falls short of Christianity. The 
Chinese leave the spirits of the dead in a dark, cold 
outer space, with all their former wants and cravings un- 
satisfied, except as the living by burnt offerings can ap- 
pease them. The Hindoo dooms the soul to endless 
transmigrations through base degraded forms till sin is 
purged away. The Persian sends the weary warrior to 
struggle in the realms of Ahriman, till his mistaken ally, 
the comet, sets the world on fire, aud his soul can strug- 
gle through- the melted elements, to the region of rest 
and happiness. The Egyptian compels the soul to three 
thousand years of trial and conflict before heaven is at- 
tained. Moses is mournfully silent upon this important 



292 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

subject, but our Divine Master, knowing the deep anxiety 
of the human heart with regard to the future, in his last 
moments drew aside aside the dark veil, and with dying 
breath spoke the words of promise and prophecy to his 
companion in dissolution ; " To-day,"— he said, no distract- 
ing delay, no transmigrations or purgatorial preparation, 
" To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise ! " If that 
blissful hope shall fill our hearts in the hour of death, 
what matter whether the body moulder to dust in subter- 
ranean silence or ascends to heaven on wings of flame ? 
The Egyptian mummies await the last trumpet which 
shall call the dead to judgment, no more sure of immor- 
tality than are the millions whose dust has passed (though 
not for purgatorial purposes) through countless forms of 
animal or vegetable life. The thoughts suggested by this 
subject find expression in the old poem addressed to a 
mummy in Belzoni's Museum. 

" And thou hast walked about (how strange a story) 
In streets of Thebes thousands of years ago! 
When the Memnonium was in all its glory 
And time had not begun to overthrow 
These temples, palaces, and piles stupendous, 
Of which the very ruins are tremendous. 
Perchance that hand now pinioned flat 
•Has hob-a-nobbed with Pharaoh, glass to glass, 
Or dropped a half-penny in Homer's hat, 
Or doffed thine own to let Queen Dido pass, 
Or held, by Solomon's own invitation, 
A torch at the great temple's dedication ! 

I need not ask thee if that hand when armed 
Hath any Roman soldier mauled or knuckled, 
For thou wert dead and buried and embalmed 
E'er Romulus or Remus had been suckled. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 293 

Antiquity appears to have begun 
Long after thy primeval race was run. 
Dids't thou not hear the pother o'er thy head 
When the Great Persian conquerer Cambyses, 
Marched armies o'er thy tomb with thundering tread, 
O'erthrow Osiris, Horus, Apis, Isis, 
And shook the Pyramids with fear and wonder, 
When the gigantic Memnon fell asunder. 

Statue of flesh, immortal of the dead, 

Imperishable type of evanescence, 

Posthumous man, who quitt'st thy narrow bed 

And standest undismayed within our presence, 

Thou wilt hear nothing till the Judgment morning 

When the great Trump shall thrill thee with its warning. 

Why should this worthless tegument endure, 

If its undying guest be lost forever ? 

Oh, let us keep the soul embalmed and pure 

In living virtue, that when both must sever, 

Altho* corruption may our frame consume, 

The immortal spirit in the skies may bloom." 



CHAPTER XII. 
MOSES AND THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS. 

Monotheism. 

" Thou shall have no other gods before me." 

GRANDEST of all the figures which still preserve a 
a clearly defined and majestic outline in the receding 
vista of past ages, is that of the founder of the 
Hebrew nation and religion, Moses, the man of God ! 

The family of Jacob, the Hebrew, had been four 
hundred years in the land of Egypt, and had become a 
numerous and powerful tribe under the protection of an 
usurping Canaanite dynasty, called the Hyksos, who had 
been in power during this time. 

A native prince now headed a revolt, the Shepherd 
kings were driven out of the country, their favorites, the 
Hebrews, fell into discredit and were reduced to slavery. 
It was prophesied that one of their number would rise to 
great power and trouble the nation ; the general uneasi- 
ness with regard to foreigners increased to such a degree, 
that the reigning monarch issued an order that all male 
infants should be destroyed at their birth. 

A boy of uncommon beauty having been born in the 

family of Amram, his mother determined to risk the 

royal vengeance and endeavor to save him by a stratagem. 
294 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 295 

Rameses, the king, had a favorite daughter, a princess 
of rare accomplishments and great influence at court, 
who often walked with her attendants upon the banks of 
the sacred river. The wife of Amram placed her infant 
son in a papyrus basket among flags, near the place where 
the princess went to bathe. She saw the forsaken, beau- 
tiful child, her heart was moved with pity, she adopted 
him and was thereafter called Touer-maut (Greek Thur- 
mouthis) H the great mother." 

This princess was a woman of extraordinary ability, 
and when her warrior father left home on his military 
campaigns, she was made prince regent. The boy of the 
waters, as he was named, was treated as a prince of 
the royal blood, and it was said that his patroness 
intended to appoint him her successor. As he mat- 
ured under the care of Touer-maut and his own 
mother who had been hired to attend him, his beauty 
came to be so wonderful, that passers-by stood fixed to 
look upon it, and laborers left their work to steal a glance. 
He was educated at Heliopolis, the city of the sun, and 
became a priest called Osarsiph, being named after the 
Egyptian practice, for Osiris, the Judge of the Dead. He 
learned arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, medicine and 
music. He invented boats and engines for building, in- 
struments of war and hydraulics, hieroglyphics, and di- 
vision of land. He was called by the Greeks, Musaeus, 
and by the Egyptians, Hermes. He commanded an ex- 
pedition against the Ethiopians and founded the city of 
Hermopolis, it is believed, to commemorate his victories. 
He got rid of the serpents of the country by letting loose 
baskets of ibises upon them. He advanced upon the 
capital of Ethiopia and gave it the name of Meroe in 



296 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

honor of his adopted mother whom he buried there. 
Tharbis, the daughter of the king of Ethiopia, fell in 
love with him, and he returned in triumph to Egypt with 
her as his wife. 

In his earliest infancy he was reported to have refused 
the milk of Egyptian nurses, and, when three years old, 
to have trampled under his feet the crown which Pharoah 
had playfully placed on his head. According to the 
Egyptian tradition, although a priest of Heliopolis, he 
always performed his prayers according to the custom of 
his fathers, outside the walls of the city, turning his face 
towards the rising sun. The king was excited to hatred 
by his own envy, or by the priests of Egypt, who foresaw 
their destroyer. Various plots of assassination were con- 
trived against him. The last was after he had already 
escaped across the Nile from Memphis, being warned by 
his brother, Aaron, he killed the assassin who pursued 
him. 

Legends of the life of Moses, from which this story is 
gathered, have been preserved not only by Jews and 
Arabs, but by Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Arta- 
phanes and Justin. 

Strabo, the Greek geographer, says, " Moses was an 
Egyptian priest who possessed a considerable tract in 
Lower Egypt. Unable longer to endure what existed 
there, he departed into Syria and with him went out many 
who honored the Divine Being. For Moses maintained 
and taught that the Egyptians were not right in likening 
the nature of God to beasts and cattle, nor yet the Afri- 
cans, nor even the Greeks in fashioning their gods in the 
form of men. He held that this only is God, that which 
encompasses all of us, earth and sea, that which we call 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 297 



heaven, the order of the world and the nature of things. 
Of this being, who that had sense, would venture to in- 
vent an image like to anything that exists amongst our- 
selves ? Far better to abandon all statuary and sculp- 
ture, all setting apart of sacred precincts and shrines, and 
pay reverence without any image whatever. Those who 
had the gift of divination were to compose themselves to 
sleep in the Temple, and if they had lived temperately 
and justly, they might expect to receive some good gift 
from God/' 

At the time of his flight from Egypt, Moses was forty 
years of age, in the prime of a magnificent manhood ; of 
great personal strength and beauty, a scholar, a warrior, 
a polished courtier, and a fully initiated Egyptian priest. 
A favorite in the proudest court of the world, he was ac- 
customed to command and was anything but a meek 
man. Though devoutly pious, he was rash, impetuous 
and violent. He looked upon the burdens of his country- 
men and his hot blood rose as he saw an Egyptian smit- 
ing a Hebrew. He slew the offender and hid his body 
in the sand. He found the next day that his violent deed 
had been observed, his patroness was dead, and he was 
already an object of jealousy, so in despair he fled to the 
stony desert, entered the service of a chief, married his 
daughter, and lived the dull eventless life of a shepherd 
for forty years. 

How galling must have been the inaction, the servile 
routine and homely life of the desert, to a man of his 
high spirit and breeding, when he looked back upon his 
glorious antecedents ! 

During the long years, how must his mighty soul have 
chafed against the invisible bonds which held him com- 



298 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

panion to uncivilized Arabs, and servant to sheep and 
cattle ! Yet religious faith sustained him, and in the 
rugged mountain Horeb, at length God revealed him- 
self, and after enlightening Moses with regard to the na- 
ture of Deity, gave him his mission as the Deliverer of his 
people from their present state of cruel bondage. He 
immediately set out for Egypt, associated himself with 
Aaron, whom he met on the way, and having informed 
the Hebrews of his mission, boldly demanded of the 
king, his old companion, the privilege of leaving Egypt 
with his entire people. They were invaluable as laborers 
and the demand was promptly refused. 

An extraordinary succession of terrible evils was then 
sent to afflict the valley of the Nile and force the Egyp- 
tians to compliance with the demand of Moses. These 
plagues "are such as from time to time occur in the cli- 
mate of Egypt. What made them miraculous, was their 
extraordinary violence and that they followed each other 
with unwonted rapidity, at the call of Moses." * They 
were the effects of natural causes, exerted in an unusual 
manner. 

The last dreadful catastrophe, the death of the heir 
apparent and all the first born of the Egyptians, com- 
pelled the obstinate monarch's permission, and after a 
residence of four hundred and fifty years in Egypt, the 
Hebrews who had entered that country but one family, 
now went forth according to Jewish history, six hundred 
thousand adult men who, with women, young children, the 
aged and a mixed multitude of disaffected persons, swel- 
led the number perhaps to three millions. It is supposed 

1 Anc. History of the East. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 299 

they crossed the Red Sea, at the narrowest point, many- 
miles north of the present Gulf of Suez, just below "a 
tongue of the sea," now dried up. Here was a high sand- 
bar, over which a furious east wind had driven the water, 
leaving a causeway where the immense train crossed 
dry-shod. The Egyptians, repenting of their extorted 
consent, pursued, and while they were on the bar, a 
change of wind brought back the sea and vast numbers 
of the pursuers perished. 

Rameses 3d, the reigning Pharaoh, was not destroy- 
ed, the Bible does not make the statement, and Egyptian 
history records his military campaigns after this event. 

The date of this remarkable emigration is doubtful. 
German investigators believe it to have been about 1300 
B.C. Dr. Milman coincides in this supposition 

After crossing the Red Sea, Moses led this undiscip- 
lined mass of people directly into the stony Desert of 
Arabia. If they had followed the great military road to 
the north which would in a few weeks have brought them 
to the promised land, the Egyptians could easily have 
pursued and cut them to pieces, or barring that event, 
their sudden proximity to the Canaanites would have pre- 
cipitated war, which must have proved disastrous to the 
undisciplined horde, or if they had made a peacable alli- 
ance with these debased and abominable nations, still un- 
instructed in God's law, they would have plunged into 
the most corrupt Sabeism, then the religion of Canaan. 

The Hebrews, it must be remembered, had been in a 
state of abject slavery for many generations, they had the 
servility, improvidence, cunning, cowardice and want of 
energy, which are the natural results of such a condition. 
They had but a dim perception of their relations to the 



300 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

God of their fathers, they were without a code of laws or 
form of government except that of their oppressors. 
They had no military training or even warlike tastes, and 
were more or less tainted with the excessive idolatry of 
the Egyptians. The policy of Moses was to keep them 
isolated in the ungenial desert, where hardened by a 
laborious and simple life, disciplined in military experi- 
ence by encounters with roving Arab tribes, instructed in 
religion and ethics and provided with a civil and social 
organization, they would be throughly prepared for the 
coding trial. The extraordinary events which had sig- 
nalized his appearance among them, and the marvels of 
their deliverance, had given them a momentary confidence 
in their leader, but once away from the taskmaster, in 
the sterile desert, led from and not toward the land of 
hope, sighing for the comforts of produr \ r e Goshen, for 
the viands of Egypt and the filtered waters of the Nile, a 
murmer soon rose to rebellion. They exhibited a weak- 
ness common to human nature, that of " placing past evil 
and present good in a diminishing scale." 

The story of the sojourn in the desert is familiar to 
all. The grandeur of the character of Moses culminates 
at this time of trial, during which his patience, firmness 
and governmental ability, stagger our credulity. He was 
prophet, ruler, arbitrator and military chief, over an un- 
organized, undisciplined mass of millions of recently eman- 
cipated serfs, wandering in a wild desert ; a responsibility 
without parallel ! Although he was confident of the 
grand result, he seems to have had light and guidance 
from God, only as it was necessary from day to day, a 
grand, overcoming faith alone sustained him. 

An interesting story is told in the Koran of a heaven- 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 301 

ly visitant, who came to him at this trying time, and 
taught him to receive without murmur the inscrutable de- 
crees of God. Walking in lonely meditation on the sea 
shore, Moses met the Immortal or Perennial One and 
said to Him, " I shall follow thee, that thou mayest teach 
me that which shall be for my guidance." The Immor- 
tal One, replied, " Verily thou canst not bear with me, 
for wilt thou patiently suffer that which thou dost not 
comprehend ? " " Thou wilt find me patient if God 
please, ,, Moses replied, " neither will I be disobedient in 
anything." " If thou follow me," said the angel, " ask 
not concerning anything till I declare the meaning 
thereof." 

They proceeded on their journey along the shore till 
they came to a vessel about to leave the port. The 
celestial being, unseen by any save Moses, broke through 
the side of this sound ship. Afterward he struck dead 
an innocent boy whom they met, and finally stopped to 
repair the wall of a city, in which they had been unjustly 
treated. At each transaction the impetuous Moses de- 
manded an explanation of the seeming injustice, and is 
rebuked. As they return the explanation is given, " The 
vessel," said the Immortal One, " belongs to certain good 
men, and I rendered it unserviceable because there was 
a wicked sea king coming, who would take away every 
sound ship. The youth whom I slew, had he lived would 
have vexed his parents by ingratitude and perverse- 
ness. The wall I rebuilt in the inhospitable city, be- 
longed to two orphan youths, and under it was hidden a 
treasure ; their father was a righteous man, and the Lord 
was pleased that they should attain their full age and 
take forth the treasure, and I did what thou hast seen, 



302 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

not by my own will, but by God's direction. This is the 
interpretation of that, which thou couldest not bear with 
patience." A lesson profitable for us, as for Moses, at 
this moment when the moral atmosphere is convulsed by 
unscrupulous mendacity and scandal, by deeds of violence 
and crime, so that we are tempted from the seeming in- 
justice, the long delayed retribution, to believe that God 
has forgotten the world. 

After Moses had been a few weeks in the wilderness, 
his father-in-law, Jethro, himself a believer in the true God, 
came to visit him. His sagacious eye perceived that his 
son-in-law was greatly overtaxed in the administration of 
affairs, and suggested that able men should be appointed 
to assist him. This wise and timely advice was imme- 
diately acted upon, with very happy results. "The idea is 
Arabian, the seventy men from the elders of the desert 
became the Jewish Sanhedrim, and the word almost 
identical with chief or sheik, has passed from Chaldee to 
Greek, and to the modern languages as presbyter, prester 
and priest." 

In the third month of their journeying in the desert, 
they approached the imposing mountains of Sinai, 
" where one tall granite cliff towers upward like the huge 
altar of some natural temple." * They encamped at its 
base in anxious expectation, perhaps hoping that God 
would here reveal Himself. In what form would He 
come? Would their God resemble any of the hundreds 
of deified forms they had so often seen in Egypt ? 

The eventful day at last dawned. An awful tempest 
shook the mountains, there was thunder and lightning, 

i Stanley. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 3°3 

and more fearful than all, the tremendous voice of a 
trumpet. A dense cloud of smoke, mingled with fire, en- 
veloped the summit, and a solemn voice summoned 
Moses, who alone went up the mountain and disappeared 
in the heavy cloud. Then was God revealed unto the 
people, not in any visible form, but by His eternal attri- 
butes. " The Lord, merciful, and gracious, long-suffer- 
ing and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy 
for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, 
and who will by no means clear the guilty. ,, 

His law was announced in the Decalogue or Ten 
Words. The first four of these commands related to re- 
ligion or the obligations of man to God. They struck 
at the very foundation of their preconceived ideas of re- 
ligious duty. They were totally opposed to all the 
natural religions of the world. They taught the unity of 
God, that he could be represented by no visible likeness, 
that he would punish those who were hostile to his 
government and would show mercy to those who loved 
him. His very name must be spoken with reverence. 
The seventh day of each week was to be observed as a 
day of rest and remembrance of his work of creation. 

The last six laws were ethical, referring to the duty 
of man toward man. Respect for parents, regard for the 
life of others, chastity, a command not to take the prop- 
erty of others, a prohibition of falsehood, and of covetous- 
ness. The principles involved in these commands now 
form the basis of the laws of the civilized world. 

What a surprise was this announcement to the 
anxious mass of listeners ! An invisible God, a purely 
spiritual religion of which moral virtue was a necessary 
part, duty to man, only second to duty to God, and more 



3°4 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 



astonishing than all, no ceremonial ! This fact increases 
in weight and importance as we reflect upon it. Religion 
is simply a condition of the soul. In the Decalogue not 
a rite or ceremony is suggested. In later days God re- 
proved the Jews who were devoted to their ritual and 
ceremonial, saying, "I spake not to your fathers concerning 
burnt offerings and sacrifices, but this thing I command- 
ed them, ' Obey my voice and I will be your God, and ye 
shall be my people.' " Our Saviour simplified the entire 
code, putting it into one condensed sentence, " Love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as 
thyself." " Love is the fulfilling of the law." 

The civil and ceremonial law afterward elaborated 
for the Hebrew nation, which had been so long 
under Egyptian government, is in many respects simi- 
lar to that in use among the Hindoos, Egyptians and 
Bedouins. 

The sacrificial system prevalent among all nations 
since the days of Cain and Abel, was adopted even to the 
offering of human victims. ' Jeptha's sacrifice of his 
daughter was not an exceptional case as in Lev. xxvii. 28 
and 29, we read, " No devoted thing * * * shall be sold or 
redeemed, no devoted thing of man or beast, it shall 
surely be put to death," and it is added, " These are the 
commandments which the Lord gave Moses for the chil- 
dren of Israel in Sinai." 

The white linen robes of the priests, the sacred 
tabernacle and gold and silver vessels, were like those of 
the Egyptians. The Urim and Thummim were evidently 
copied from the breast-plates of the Egyptian priests. 
Upon these latter were jewels and images of the sun- 
god Ra, and the Urei or sacred asps, the serpent emblem 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 305 

on the sun's disk, also the image of Thme, goddess of 
Truth or Justice. The sun in Hebrew is aur, truth is 
thme. Philo, a learned Jew, says the breast plate of the 
priest contained images of the two virtues or powers. 
The Septuagint makes these singular words mean 
Manifestation and Truth. The cherubim of the Hebrews 
were winged oxen, and the seraphim winged serpents 
also emblems of heathendom, but with a very different 
application. 

The travellers Lepeius and Laborde have recently 
discovered in the Desert of Sinai, the remains of ex- 
tensive Egyptian metallurgic works, where it is prob- 
able the golden Apis of Aaron, as well as the sacred 
emblems and utensils of the tabernacle were manufac- 
tured. 

Moses, learned in all the wisdom of the age, no doubt 
drew largely upon his wide stores of study and experi- 
ence, readopting and remodelling old ideas for the use of 
the new nation, and his legislative and judicial rulings 
were afterward always considered authoritative and final, 
but in his code there are also many points of unmistak- 
able originality which were not copied nor borrowed from 
any nation then existing. 

The most striking of these, is its theocracy, govern- 
ment by the direct word of God. Other nations were 
under hereditary, monarchial and sacerdotal rule, but the 
Hebrews were to be governed by the word of God, sent 
through the mouth of prophets. No age, station, or even 
sex, was excluded from the privilege of inspiration. Any 
godly person might hope to become the honored medium. 
Miriam, Deborah and Anna, women, and Samuel and 
Jeremiah, children, did receive the divine afflatus. The- 

20 



306 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

ocracy lasted till the days of Saul, when unhappily the 
Israelites chose for themselves a human ruler. 

The humanity of the new law was another peculiarity. 
The establishment of cities of refuge mitigated that wild 
spirit of revenge peculiar to rude and imperfect civiliza- 
tions. Laws for the amelioration of the condition of 
slaves and servants, as even for the comfort of domestic 
animals, are noticeable in an age of almost unmitigated 
cruelty. 

A remarkable exception to this merciful policy was 
made in the treatment of the Canaanitish nations. This 
debased, mixed population, practicing an abominable 
worship, were cruel, idolatrous and licentious ; they had 
filled up the cup of iniquity, and the Hebrews, like the 
hordes of Alaric and Attila, scourges of God, were com- 
missioned by the Almighty'to exterminate them. 

Mercy toward these reprobates was a crime, even 
powerless women and tender infants were not to be 
spared, their horses were to be mutilated, their cattle 
slaughtered, their cities and chariots were to be burned 
with fire, being, no doubt, covered after the fashion of 
those times, with vile emblems and insignia. But the 
conquest once achieved, the dangerous and corrupt in- 
habitants exterminated, " the Hebrews," says Milman, 
" were to subside to an unambitious republic with a 
simple religion, with equal administration of justice, with 
brotherly harmony and mutual good will, where industry, 
domestic virtue, purity of morals, gentleness of manner 
were to arise in the very vineyards, gardens, and corn 
fields which they had obtained by merciless violence." 

Again, the absence of the doctrine of immortality which 
was taught with such minute and circumstantial detail in 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 307 



the Egyptian religion, strikes us with a sad surprise. 
We cannot believe that Moses was not assured of im- 
mortality, but he certainly nowhere alludes to it unless 
in one passage in the Book of Job, the authorship of 
which is commonly ascribed to him : " I know that my 
Redeemer liveth and shall stand upon the earth in the 
latter days, and though after my skin, worms devour this 
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." There is a cor- 
responding absence of the doctrine of future rewards and 
punishments. The penalties for sin are always temporal 
calamities, and the rewards of obedience, material bless- 
ings, children, wealth, victory^ long life, plenteous har- 
vests. 

Mr. Froude suggests that perhaps the absence of this 
doctrine in the teachings of Moses, may have been intended 
to counteract the effect of its exaggerated abuse in Egyp- 
tian practice. Evils of government or social life were 
tolerated and lightly considered, because Osiris would 
right every wrong in the other world, while the cruel 
tyrant or immoral man, by offerings to the gods and ex- 
piatory acts of piety, could hope to keep the balance of 
the dreadful scales always in his favor. The Israelites 
were taught that they must live righteously in this life or 
punishment would be the immediate consequence. 

The religion of Moses asserts its originality by its 
rigid monotheism and prohibition of image worship then 
universal, by its spirituality, its enforced purity and just 
ethical code, its humanizing and democratic tendency, its 
absence of hereditary privilege and caste. Yet with all 
this superiority when it is compared with the other re- 
ligions of the world, we are forced to admit that it does 
not approach to the perfection of Christianity. " The 



3o8 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ, in whom life and immortality are brought to 

light.- 

Beside the Sabbath and other minor days, Moses es- 
tablished three great national festivals, the Feast of 
Tabernacles, in memory of the life in the wilderness, the 
Feast of the Passover, a solemn reminiscence of the last 
eventful night in Egypt, and the Feast of Pentecost, cel- 
ebrated at harvest time, a season of thanksgiving and 
joy. He added rules for the celebration of divine wor- 
ship not intended for universal adoption certainly, as 
some of them would be impossible in a cold climate ; he 
made important distinctions between the animals which 
were proper or unsuitable for food, a sanitary regulation 
intended for that latitude, and in some cases simply for 
the wilderness, as the animals mentioned were unknown 
in the land of Canaan. 

Let such persons as would return to Ritualism and 
impose upon Christians the burdensome yoke of Judea 
and Rome, note these important facts and better com- 
prehend what is meant by the command, " Stand fast in 
the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free." 

Soon after the promulgation of the law and organiza- 
tion of the new government, Moses sent twelve resolute 
men to reconnoitre in the land of Canaan. They re- 
turned laden with the rich fruits of the country, which 
they represented of extraordinary fertility, but said that 
its conquest would be impossible, as the inhabitants were 
warlike and of gigantic stature. The craven Israelites, 
alarmed by the report, revolted and begged to be led 
back to Egypt. Then Moses, by direction of God, de- 
clared that none of that generation, save Caleb and 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 309 

Joshua, should enter the promised land, they should 
wander for thirty-eight years longer in the desert, till all 
over twenty years were dead. 

And now forty years had almost expired, the faithless 
servile generation who had left Egypt were buried in the 
wilderness, and the death of the leader drew near, Moses, 
the adopted son of the proudest monarch of the age, 
the learned Egyptian priest, the writer, the law giver, 
the inspired prophet, the commander, the ruler, the 
grandest character in human history, with whom God 
conversed familiarly, " even as a friend converseth with 
a friend," Moses, not the meekest man, but as the word 
more properly signifies, the enduring, the afflicted, the 
man heedless of himself, self-deprecating always, " O 
Lord, I am slow of speech, how can I speak before Pha- 
raoh ?" His temperament appears desponding and mel- 
ancholy, yet who ever had greater need of high spirits 
and buoyant hopes ? But let us remember the balance 
of happiness is not determined by the adjustment of 
outward circumstances. The springs of joy lie deep 
within the soul. The worldly-wise acknowledge this 
truth in the proverb, " As a man thinketh, so is he." The 
Christian says, " Great peace have they who love thy law 
and nothing can offend them." Into the great heart of 
Moses, this principle had entered, and in the midst of 
crushing responsibility, care and superhuman labor, de- 
serted by his friends, even by his wife, abused and ma- 
ligned by the men to whose interest he had devoted all his 
energies, and for whose sake he had renounced the splen- 
dors of a royal court, doomed to die before he had tasted 
the fruits of success, he was patient, persistent, unselfish 
and happy in the peace of God, which passeth under- 



3 1 o FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

standing, a joy which temporal vicissitudes " could 
neither give nor take away." 

Moses was now one hundred and twenty years old ; 
time and the eventful scenes of his chequered life had 
left his robust nature unimpaired, " his eye was not dim 
nor his natural force abated," he might without; presump- 
tion hope to see the consummation of his labor and lead 
his nation into the promised land, but he had spoken 
rashly upon one memorable occasion and a stern decree 
had gone forth against him ; when he prayed, " Oh Lord 
God, let me, I pray thee, go over and see this good land 
beyond Jordan! " God answered, it seems to us almost 
harshly, " Let it suffice thee, speak to me no more of this 
matter ! Get thee up to the top of Pisgah and behold 
the land, for thou shalt not go over Jordan ! Behold thy 
days approach that thou must die, call Joshua that I may 
give him a charge." With quiet submission Moses heard 
his doom, entrusted Joshua with the leadership, wrote 
out the words of the law, consigned them to the sacred 
casket, sang a beautiful prophetic song, went alone to 
the fatal mountain, " and died according to the word of 
the Lord and He buried him there and no man knoweth 
of his sepulchre unto this day." 

But over his mortal remains, a mighty archangel stood 
guard, lest the archfiend should carry them away to the 
afflicted Israelites, who were as ready for his embalming 
and apotheosis, as were the Egyptians when mourning 
over the dead body of a Pharaoh. Mr. Kurtz thinks that 
the burial of Moses by Jehovah may imply a translation 
like that of Enoch and Elijah, and that Satan, "He that 
hath the power of death " contended for his prey. 1 

1 Matt. xvii. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE 311 

Jewish, Christian, and Arab tradition adds some 
touching incidents to the last scene. " Amid the tears 
of the people, the women beating their breasts, and the 
children giving way to uncontrolled wailing, he withdrew. 
At a certain point in the ascent, he made a sign to the 
weeping multitude to advance no further, taking with 
him only the elders, the high priest Eleazar and Joshua. 
At the top of the mountain he dismissed the elders and 
then as he was embracing Eleazar and Joshua, and still 
speaking to them, a cloud suddenly stooJ over him and 
he vanished into a deep valley.' , 

" In one sense, the death of Moses might seem in- 
complete, disappointing, mournful, but in a higher sense, 
how fully in accordance with his whole career, how truly 
the crowning point of his life ; self-sacrificing, enduring, 
self-forgetting, always, his character receives its highest 
type and concentration of endurance in the last mourn- 
ful scene. To labor and not see the end of our labor, to 
sow and not reap, to be removed from this earthly scene 
before our work has been appreciated and when it will 
only be carried on by others, is a law common to the 
highest character of history. But life did never to one 
man allow, 

4 Time to discover worlds and conquer too.'' 1 

Moses died as he had lived, alone ! a weeping infant, 
alone upon the waters of the Nile, a thoughtful student, 
alone in the grandeur of Rameses' court, a sad exile, 
alone in the land of Midian, alone in his leadership 
through the Wilderness, for even Aaron defected, and 
alone in death on the Mountain of Nebo, alone as far as 

1 Bishop Stanley. 



312 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

human companionship is concerned, but always then, and 
now forever with the Lord ! 

The great men of this world, those who have left their 
impress on the ages, and have, during milleniums, swayed 
the destinies of the race, have not been military geniuses, 
nor intellectual giants, brilliant or fascinating orators, 
nor even those men of extraordinary governmental abili- 
ties, which made them the monarchs of the world. The 
Masters of mankind, have been the enunciators of law, 
the sages who have renounced all mere temporal interest 
and have given their wealth of heart and soul to the ad- 
vancement of mankin'd. While the empires of Nimrod 
and Rameses, of Alexander and Julius Caesar, of Charles 
the 5th, and Napoleon, have crumbled to ashes, Confucius 
and Zoroaster, Gotama and Moses, Mahomet and Martin 
Luther, men of self-repression and self-abnegation, tower 
above the wrecks of time, still controlling the springs of 
action and every day life of millions of their species. 

" These shall resist the empire of decay, 
When time is o'er and worlds have passed away, 
Cold in the dust the perished form may lie, 
But that which warmed it once can never die." 



CHAPTER XIII. 
THE SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION. 

" Odin, all Father, terrible and severe." 

TURN we now from old Asia, the cradle of the 
human race, the homestead of nations, the labora- 
tory of primeval art the nursery of philosophy and 
religion, in whose shadow history slumbers, guarded by 
myth and tradition, and direct our attention to another 
land over whose early existence the impenetrable night of 
oblivion forever rests. But in the obscure gloom, the 
archaeologist gropes, and aided by the dim taper of science 
discovers beneath debris deposited by the surges of Time, 
the relics of human beings, savage and wild as the mon- 
strous beasts with which they struggled for an uncertain 
supremacy. When they lived we know not, for how long 
we know not, but it is certain that here they roamed and 
fought giant animals, gathered the sparse productions of 
an ungenial soil, made themselves homes, loved and hated, 
hoped and feared, (for they were men) and here they 
died, leaving their bones to be petrified by the uncon- 
scious elements, to stimulate in later ages the curiosity 
of the antiquary. Their memory perished, their name 
was forgotten, " the spirit returned to God who gave it," 
and the Omniscient eye alone watched through the silent 
hours of a long unbroken night. 

J»3 



314 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

Another morning dawns : in the early twilight a 
fierce, dark multitude are seen moving, a mighty army 
riding upon horses, with banner and lance, in martial 
array. From the far north of Asia they come, westward 
they press, whither their sun-god leads the way, onward 
they press, following the track of the serpent of the 
heavens. Through rifts in the morning mists, we per- 
ceive their majestic advance, their huge enginery, their 
gigantic structures ; Karnac, with its sevenfold line of 
stupendous monoliths, stretching its undulations for thir- 
teen miles, Abury in hierographic form, a blasphemous 
symbol, Stonehenge with shape and significance too 
vile to be contemplated, as at sunrise on the summer 
solstice, the altars reek with human gore, offered to gain 
from the serpent-god, fruitf ulness in man and cattle and 
mother earth, material for war and labor and sacrifice ! 
Listen! our hearing assists our failing vision. " Aur-ob, 
Aur-ob" is the sound borne upon the distant breeze. 
The land takes a name — -Land of the Solar Serpent. 
Europe receives its baptism of blood. 

The Turanian wave sweeps on, westward ever, across 
the great ocean, perhaps over the treacherous volcanic 
bridge, the shattered remains of which are still to be 
seen, across to a new world, there to found other mighty 
empires, raise other gigantic temples, slaughter other 
human victims, and pass — we know not whither. 

The Scythic wave has died away on the western 
shore, the European day grows brighter, the land will not 
long remain desolate. The fair-haired, blue-eyed sons of 
Gomer, peer over the Riphian Mountains, and survey the 
enchanting prospect which lies below. A land of hills 
and valleys, lakes and streams. Ripath leads the way. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 31 S 

The Celts, his children, were restless, inventive, eloquent, 
persuasive, versatile, insolent, amorous, eager for strife, 
infirm of purpose ; characteristics still preserved in the 
French and Irish of our day. 

Following Ripath came his brother Ashkenaz, eldest 
of the Gommerian family, with grander, sterner mien, 
slow to move, slow to love, chaste, serious, reserved, prov- 
ident, persistent, gloomy, warlike, father of the grand 
Germanic family, destined to sway the future of the 
world. More powerful physically, as in moral and intel- 
lectual qualities, they pushed the Celtic tribes before 
them, and soon overran North Central Europe ; even 
Gaul was finally conquered by a Germanic tribe — the 
Franks — who fixed its name, and Great Britain, also, be- 
came the possession of the Saxons and Normans. 

Ancient Scandinavia, known at present as Norway, 
Sweden, Denmark and Germany, is a land of cold, clou- 
dy skies, black, impenetrable forests, low, dangerous 
shores, but recently redeemed by volcanic upheaval from 
the domain of Old Ocean. The land with its ancient in- 
habitants has been so graphically portrayed by the 
French critic, Mr. Taine, that I cannot resist the incli- 
nation to transcribe it. " The blast of the north swirls 
down upon the lowland, wan and ominous, the yellow sea 
dashes against the narrow belt of coast, the wind howls, 
the seamen cry, the ships flee for refuge to the rivers, 
which seem as hostile as the sea. Above the mighty 
waste of waters, float the clouds, grey, shapeless daugh- 
ters of the air, who draw up the water in their mist- 
buckets, carry it along laboriously, and again suffer it to 
fall into the sea, a sad, useless, wearisome task. Shifting 
sand and rocks obstruct the harbors. The first Roman 



3i 6 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

fleet, a thousand vessels, perished there, and to this day, 
ships sometimes wait a month before they dare to enter. 
Picture in this climate, amid hoarfrost and storm, in 
these marshes and forests, half-naked savages, Saxons, 
Angles, Jutes, Frisians, Goths, Huns, and Danes. Huge 
white bodies, fierce blue eyes, flaxen hair, ravenous 
stomachs, filled with meat, cheese and strong drink, these 
are the features the Romans describe, and these, climate 
and descent, has preserved till this day. They were pre- 
eminently adapted to seafaring life, and piracy was its 
most profitable form. They left the land to the care of 
the women, and dashed to sea in their two-sailed barks, 
landed everywhere, killed everything, and having sacri- 
ficed a tithe of their prisoners in honor of their gods, by 
the red light the conflagrations they had kindled, they 
went further on, to begin anew. Their sea-kings, who 
had never slept beneath the smoky rafters of a hut, or 
drained the ale horn by an inhabited hearth, laughed at 
the storm, and sang " The blast of the tempest aids our 
oars, the bellowing of heaven, the howling of the thunder 
hurts us not, the hurricane is our servant, and drives us 
whither we wish to go/' — 

As the young princes of this sturdy race, emerged 
into manhood, they were provided with a small fleet, 
and accompanied by their retainers, went forth to piracy 
and plunder. Their feats of valor were incredibly cruel 
but they were generous to a brave foe. A young man 
was considered unworthy to address a maiden till he had 
performed some deed of desperate bravery. Marriage 
was not allowed till the twenty-sixth year, and was invio- 
lable. Their sense of honor was so rigid that a woman 
might lie all night upon the same couch with a man, uA- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 3*7 



sullied in reputation, if a drawn sword was placed be- 
tween them, a circumstance no doubt, often necessitated 
by their protracted and perilous military campaigns, 
which women accompanied as prophetesses, priestesses 
and physicians, sometimes taking part in the battles. 
Licentiousness was detested as enervating. The dread- 
ful penalties of unchastity were unknown among the 
Scandinavian tribes, until they were introduced by the 
Romans, and to this fact no doubt, may be attributed the 
great fecundity and vigor of the race. 

In such a state of society, woman was of course, re- 
spected. Her power over the men was so great, that af- 
ter a terrible defeat of the Cimmeri by the Romans, the 
retreating army, being met by the women and reproached 
for the disgrace, the warriors, unable to endure the hu- 
miliation, fell furiously upon each other and completed 
the destruction which the Romans had begun. One 
hundred and twenty-five thousand men thus miserably 
perished. 

War was both business and pastime. The govern- 
ment was singularly free. The king inherited his posi- 
tion, but his power was limited. In all important matters 
a general assembly was convened ; the king first ad- 
dressed the multitude, afterwards the great men were 
heard. Eloquence and persuasion were more effective 
in these gatherings than the influence of rank. If the 
assembly were displeased, there was a general murmur ; 
applause was given by clashing of the lances. Military 
generals were chosen for their personal valor. Retainers 
rallied round the chiefs whose deeds they emulated in 
battle, and with whom it was their glory to die. 

In a climate which roused all the energies of their 



3,i8 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

nature, they were full of poetry, piety and truth, but piti- 
less, reckless and desperately brave, valuing life only as 
an opportunity for heroic deeds, their greatest ambition 
was to die a violent death that they might, with their 
beloved chiefs, pass proudly to the halls of Odin. How 
unlike the apathetic Chinaman, the dreaming Hindu, the 
subservient Egyptian. 

Some of the Vikings, or Sea Rovers, whose names 
and deeds are still remembered, were grand 'and noble 
men, cruel and ferocious undoubtedly, but in later times, 
and in a different state of society, would have been 
exalted and admirable characters, the benefactors of their 
race. 

Some brave Norse sailors discovered Iceland in 860 
A.D., following for a guide the flight of ravens which were 
thrown off from their small sailing vessels when in mid- 
ocean. A colony settled in that island, and sent out an ex- 
ploring expedition to the south, which landed on the New 
England coast five hundred years before Columbus found 
the West Indies. The old stone mill at Newport is sup- 
posed to be a relic of the Norse voyagers. 

The Icelandic colony became extinct, after an unknown 
period, from some unknown cause, and its memory would 
have perished but for the discovery in 1824 of memorial 
stones in Iceland, inscribed with Runic characters, which 
confirm the story of the settlement, as contained in two 
ancient documents on vellum, perserved in the library of 
Copenhagen. 

The religious faith of the Scandinavian tribes is the 
subject of our special interest. Like all natural religions, 
its type was taken from the circumstances and character 
of its founders, congruous with the era and country of its 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 3*9 

origin, and destined, as far as its errors are concerned, to 
die on the spot which gave it birth. It gives evidence of 
Aryan origin, resembling greatly that of Persia and India, 
preserving more of primitive revelation than the religions 
of the southern European nations, the descendants of 
Javan, or Ioun, another son of Japhet. They held the 
lofty idea of one supreme ruler of the universe, whom 
they named Esus, or Taut, and as his worshippers they 
were called Teutons, Teutsche and finally Dutch. The 
name Teut reminds us of Taut, or Thoth, the Saviour 
of the Egyptians, and is not the only point of resem- 
blance between the religions of the two countries. 

Drifting into pantheism, they made beneath and sub- 
ordinate to the supreme God, other deities, principally im- 
personations of the powers of nations, fashioned after 
their own likeness, with the moral qualities of constancy, 
energy, truth, courage, valor and a cruel ferocity, which de- 
lighted in war and carnage. 

Information upon this interesting subject is to be 
found in two ancient books, the prose and poetic Edda, a 
word which signifies grandmother, and also in the poems 
of the skalds or bards, written in an old Norse Dialect no 
longer spoken. 

The language of the Edda is " God is the author 
of everything that existeth, the eternal, the ancient, the 
living and awful being, the searcher into concealed things, 
the being that never changeth, who governeth through the 
ages, directing all that is high or low. He lives forever, 
and made the heaven, the earth, the air. He made man 
and gave him a spirit which shall live even after the body 
shall -have vanished. He has infinite power, boundless 
knowledge, and incomparable justice." Only the attribute 



320 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



of love is wanting in this conception of Deity. To serve 
God with prayer and sacrifice, to do no wrong to others, 
and to be brave and intrepid, were the three fundamental 
doctrines. All who lived in the observance of them went, 
at death, to Valhalla, hall of the valiant, a land of bliss, 
where heroes spent their time in martial sports, being cut 
to pieces every day and restored every night, in order to 
feast upon the inexhaustible fiesk of a celestial boar called 
Skrymner, and drink beer and mead from the skulls of the 
enemies slain in battle, the cups being presented to them 
by virgins of exceeding beauty. But the wicked went to 
Nifleheim, the dwelling place of Hela, or Death, a being 
whose looks struck terror to all beholders, whose palace 
was anguish, the threshold of her door precipice, her bed 
leanness, her table famine, the carving knife hunger, and 
her waiters expectation and delay/' A still more dreadful 
place was provided for traitors and other sinners, whose 
character was particularly abhorrent to this chaste and 
truth loving race. It was Nastrond, the shore of the dead, 
far from the sun, the gates facing to the north, this was to 
endure forever. " Poison rains there through a thousand 
openings. There lie the carcasses of serpents, and there 
run fearful torrents into which perjurers and assassins are 
plunged." 

Odin, or Woden, was principal of the subordinate 
deities, a name which signifies all-father. He was the ter- 
rible, the severe god, the father of slaughter, he who 
giveth victory and reviveth courage in the conflict, and 
nameth those who are to be slain. The warriors vowed 
to send the souls of such to him ; if they died sword in hand 
he received them in Valhalla, where they were amply re- 
warded. His aid was always invoked in war, and he often 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 321 



descended to join in the battle. Nevertheless, he was the 
all-father and creator, though, as in all natural religions, 
his worshippers had transferred to him their own ideal char- 
acter. Wodensday, our Wednesday is named for him. 
His wife was Frigga, the goddess of love, pleasure and 
enjoyment. She gave name to Friday. 

Besides Odin, were twelve deities called the ^Esir, 
mostly sons and grandsons of Odin. Thor was the most 
valiant of these. He was the defender and the avenger 
of the gods : he carried a ponderous hammer, grasped 
with gauntlets of iron, whose force was irresistible. When 
hurled, it would return of itself to his hand ! His girdle 
possessed the power of renewing his strength. Thors 
name is perpetuated in Thursday. 

The second son of Odin was Baldur — fair and bright, 
— he was wise, eloquent and amiable. Niord was third, 
he ruled the elements, and was invoked by seafaring peo- 
ple. Frey, son of Niord, presided over the climate and 
the material prosperity of men. Another son of Odin, 
by a giant mother, was Tyr, — wise, stout and bold. An- 
other was Bragi, famed for wisdom, eloquence, and poetry. 
Heimdell was called the white or bright god. He was 
born in the beginning of time, on the boundary of earth ; 
nine giant maidens were his mother. They were sisters, 
and he was nourished with the strength of the earth and 
the cold sea. He was the gate-keeper of the gods. Ho- 
dur was blind, but exceeding strong. Vidar was the son 
of Odin and the giantess Grid. His name signifies the 
iron shoe, and he was next in strength to Thor. Vali 
was stout in battle, and a great archer. Ull was a good 
archer, a rapid runner on snow-shoes, and the god of 
single combat. 



21 



322 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

Forseti, son of Baldur, was the arbiter of heaven and 
earth, and settled all the quarrels of gods and men. Loki 
was the spirit of evil, a traducer, and a scandal to gods 
and men, comely in aspect, but evil-minded and capricious. 
He was full of guile, always bringing the JEsir into 
trouble, and extricating them by his cunning. 

By Angurboda, a giantess of Jotunheim, or the ice 
urtA* cgiron , Loki, the spirit of evil, had three remarkable chil- 
dren, the wolf Fenrir, Midgard's serpent, and Hela, the 
goddess of the dead. In the beginning Odin and Loki 
were foster-brothers, mingling their blood together. Here 
we have Magian Dualism, the good and evil principles 
coeval and coexistent. 

After Frigga, wife of Odin, there was Freyia, the 
daughter of Niord, invoked in love matters. Idun, wife 
of Bragi, took charge of certain apples which renewed 
the youth of the gods. There were other goddesses, and 
numerous immortal virgins/three of whom, like the Fates 
of the southern nations, dispensed the days and ages of 
men. They were named Urd (the past), Verdandi (the 
present), and Skuld (the future). 

The cosmogony of these races partakes of the wild 
character of the religion. %i In the beginning," say the 
old Icelandic legends, " there were two worlds, Niflheim, 
the frozen, and Muspell, the burning. From the falling 
snowflakes the giant Ymir was born. There was in times 
of old, where Ymir dwelt, nor sand, nor sea, nor gelid 
wave, earth existed not, nor heaven above, 'twas a chaotic 
chasm, and grass nowhere. There was but Ymir, the 
horrible frozen ocean and his children, sprung from 
his feet and arm-pits, and their shapeless progeny, Ter- 
rors of the abyss, Frozen mountains, Whirlwinds of the 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 323 

North, and other malevolent beings, enemies of the sun 
and of life. Then the cow Andhumbla, born also of 
melting snow, brings to light, whilst licking the hoar 
frost from the rocks, a man — Bur, whose grandson killed 
the giant Ymir. From the flesh of this giant the earth 
was formed ; from his bones, the hills ; the heavens from 
the skull of that ice-cold giant, and from his blood the 
sea. But of his brains the heavy clouds are all created. 

"There arose war between the monsters of winter 
and the luminous, fertile gods, — Odin, the founder, Bal- 
dur, the mild and benevolent, Thof, the summer thunder, 
who purifies the air and nourishes the earth with show- 
ers." This is apparently a myth of the Ice Age. " Long 
fought the gods, against the frozen Jotuns (ice giants), 
against the dark bestial powers, the w T olf Fenrir, the great 
serpent, whom they drown in the sea, the treacherous 
Loki, whom they bind to the rocks, beneath a viper, 
whose venom drops continually on his face. Long will 
the heroes, who by a bloody death deserve to be placed 
in the halls of Odin, there wage a combat every day, and 
assist the gods in their mighty war. A day, however, 
will arrive, when gods and men will be conquered. Then 
trembles Yggdrasil's ash yet standing, groans that ancient 
tree, and the Jotun Loki is loosed — the shadows groan on 
the ways of Hel until the fire of Surt has consumed the tree. 
Hrym steers from the east, the waters rise, the mundane 
snake is coiled in Jotun rage. The worm beats the water, 
the eagle screams, the pale of beak tears carcasses, the 
ship Naglfar is loosed. Surt comes from the south with 
flickering flame. Shines from his sword the valgod's sun. 
The stony hills are dashed together, the giantesses totter, 
men tread the path of hell, and heaven is cloven. The 



324 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 

sun darkens, earth in ocean sinks, fall from heaven the 
bright stars, fires breath assails the all-nourishing tree, 
and towering fire plays against the heaven itself." The 
same idea we find in our own scriptures : " The sun shall 
be darkened, the moon turned to blood, the heavens shall 
be rolled together as a scroll, and the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat" 

In most heathen mythologies, we discover a reminis- 
cence of Paradise in the united symbols of the tree and 
the serpent ;■ it is not wanting here. The Scandinavians 
had a sacred emblem, called Yggdrasil or the Mundane 
Tree. It is a circular picture of great beauty and inter- 
est. In the midst stands the sacred ash, in rough waten 
upon which lies stretched, surrounding the tree at a dis- 
tance, a huge coiled serpent, with his tail in his mouth. 
These figures are surrounded and covered with mystical 
devices, obscure and imperfectly explained. " The tree 
signifies human life, it is supposed ; the ocean is to con- 
vey the idea that life is born of water ; a swan swim- 
ming upon its surface, represents infancy; the eagle 
upon the branches, maturity ; a hawk, perched between 
the eagle's eyes, internal sense ; little snakes gnawing at 
the roots, are passions and vices ; the squirrel, flattery, 
running between the passions and the mind ; the deer 
denote folly, madness, terror, disquietude, they feed upon 
the green leaves and buds of thought. " But," says the 
Edda, " man often remarks not what enemies threaten his 
existence, and his stems rot on one side, and many a one 
dies before he attains wisdom ; before the bird of his 
soul is seated amid the verdure of the Mundane tree/' 

These people practised divination and sorcery, by 
which they sought to penetrate the darkness of futurity, 



FROM DA IVJV TO SUNRISE. 3*5 

particularly at the birth of children. There were two 
kinds of witches — the Seid witches could not only proph- 
esy, but control coming events ; they could prepare viands 
from serpents and reptiles — like the witches in Mac- 
beth — or philters and potions to produce love or aversion, 
f orgetf ulness or wisdom. The Galder witches could com- 
pose runic rhymes of supernatural power, and compel 
the dead to speak— like the spiritists of the present day. 
Truly has Solomon said : " There is nothing new under 
the sun/' Human nature is always repeating itself ; 
the necromancers of this century are merely practising 
the superstitions of their barbarian forefathers in the 
gloomy forests of the north. The runes were magical 
characters, written from right to left, and combined in 
certain ways, would work wonders. 

In that wild climate, earth and air was believed to be 
peopled by strange fantastic beings, undines, ghouls, 
gnomes, elves, kobolds, pixies, nixen, killicrofts, and 
white ladies. The Ettrick shepherd thus introduces 
some of them : 

" When the witches came to Lapland lone 
The Fairies were all in array, 
For all the Genii of the north 
Were keeping their holy-day. 

The warlock men, the weird women, 

The fays of the wood and steep, 
The phantom hunters all were there, 

And the mermaids of the deep." 

The eldest of the Norns, a race of dwarfs, attended 
human beings, when dying. 

Although the Scandinavians were firm believers in a 
resistless fatality, they supposed a man's life might be 



326 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



prolonged, if another should die in his stead ; men were 
therefore, frequently slain, that *Odin, content with a vic- 
tim, might lengthen the thread of another s life. This 
sacrifice was often carried to a shocking extent when a 
king or illustrious warrior was in danger, even to the of- 
fering up of the lives of their own children. Upon the 
death of these eminent persons, their families and attend- 
ants, often voluntarily, were placed upon . the funeral 
pyre, where the body was to be burned, and died, as they 
believed, to swell the grand pageant of their lord as it 
entered Odin's hall. 

They had no doubts with regard to the immortality 
of the soul, or the certainty of future reward and pun- 
ishment Beautiful nymphs, Valkyrias, who attended 
the dying warriors, were supposed to question the depart- 
ing soul, very much after the manner of the Persian 
and Egyptian reckoning, after death. 

" Seola," they say " did you belong to a freeman or a 
slave ? " 

" Seola, did your master honor the gods and the 
priests ? " 

" Did he keep his pledged word ? " 

"Did he die like a brave man, without fear and with 
his face to the enemy ? " 

" Seola, did he ever fight against the men of his own 
blood and his own race ? " 

The soul, unable at that supreme moment to utter a 
falsehood, was judged according to its own words, and 
carried to Valhalla by the Valkyrias, or taken by Alfs, 
horrible fiends, to a place of punishment, graduated ac- 
cording to the nature of its sins. 

The priests of this religion are supposed to have been 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 327 

a branch of the Persian Magi. Roman writers assert 
that they came into Europe soon after the era of 
Abraham. 

There was no hierarchy in Scandinavia as there was 
among the Celts, the sacerdotal power being confined to 
the offices of religion. In both nations the priests 
wielded a tremendous power even to the sacrificing of 
the king himself if it was deemed necessary to avert 
some impending calamity. The priestesses were more 
potent, if possible, than the priests, being women of 
wonderful strength and nerve ; attending the armies, 
unfalteringly cutting the throats of prisoners and with- 
out trepidation drawing auguries from the appearance of 
their life-blood as it flowed into a brazen kettle. The 
priests practised great austerity of life, retiring to the 
recesses of groves or dark forests ; in these solitary 
places they trained young men for life, teaching orally 
the doctrines and mysteries of religion and enforcing the 
virtues of bravery, loyalty, obedience and chastity. 
Without sacred writing before the time of the Edda. 
they had preserved by oral transmission the highest and 
purest doctrines of Persian Magism. They abhorred 
idolatry ; had no images, and for a long time no temples, 
preferring the solemn shadows of sacred grove and 
gloomy forests, though in later times, probably from the 
necessities of climate, they built temples ; some of them, 
particularly that at Upsal, of great magnificence, taking 
for models the interweaving arches of majestic trees, a 
style destined to be perpetuated in what is now called 
the Gothic. The temples were always built near a grove 
or some lofty tree upon which offerings were suspended 
after having been washed in a sacred fountain. These 



328 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

offerings were at first simple fruits, but in time, goats, 
oxen, horses and human beings were devoted to sacri- 
ficial death. In these dreadful ceremonies, every con- 
vulsion of the dying, and variation in the appearance of 
the blood or vitals of the victims, were carefully observed 
as indications of the divine will. The altars, commonly 
built upon a mound or hill in the open air, were formed 
of three long blocks of stone, two of which were set up- 
right, and the third was laid across the top for the 
victim ; a hollow place received the blood which was 
sprinkled on the assembly with a brush. 

These simple altars have been confounded with the 
dracontia of the Turanians, their predecessors in Europe, 
and all have been classed as Druidical remains. It is 
impossible to determine at this time, where the line of 
distinction between these relics should be drawn. Per- 
haps the cromlechs or stone altars were left by the ser- 
pent worshippers and appropriated by the Druids. 
I have never seen any account of their actual erec- 
tion by Celt or Scandinavian, and the fact that under 
some of them enormous serpents bred, would seem to 
indicate that they were the remains of Turanian altars 
and their loathsome deities, left undisturbed by the super- 
stitious fear of their successors. 

The Romans, after the conquest, offered their gods 
to the north nations, but their strong natures scorned 
the weak voluptuaries. They bowed to the military 
power of Rome, but not to its immoral Pantheon. The 
Christian missionaries were more successful. One of 
the Christian bishops in passing through the streets of 
Rome, saw some captives standing in the court ; their 
beautiful complexion, flaxen hair and pure blue eyes, 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 329 

softened in expression by their misfortunes, arrested his 
attention. " Who are these men ? " he earnestly asked. 
" Angles," was the answer. " Rather say angels" replied 
the good bishop in sudden admiration, and immediately 
interested himself in their conversion. Missionaries 
were sent out to the north, with the paraphernalia of the 
Romish Christian church, so calculated to please bar- 
baric tastes, chanting the litany, holding aloft the silver 
crucifix and calling solemnly on Jesus and Mary. 

The gospel words fell into good soil. Esus was al- 
ready adored, the doctrines of immortality and salvation 
through sacrifice, future reward and punishment, self re- 
pression and purity were their own religion. Spiritual 
men were among their exalted and beloved sovereigns. 
It is related of Harold, first King of Norway, that when 
he was still young, he rose in assembly and uttered these 
memorable words, " I swear and protest in the most 
sacred manner, that I will never offer sacrifice to any of 
the gods adored by the people, but to Him only who has 
made this world and everything we behold in it." 

When the Christian faith was offered to a popular 
assembly, A.D., 625, an old chief rose and said, " You 
remember oh, king, what sometimes happens when you are 
seated at table with your earls and thanes, a swallow flies 
in at the door and passing swiftly through the hall goes 
out again ; the brief moment is pleasant to him in the 
kindly warmth — it is but for the twinkling of an eye, and 
he passes from winter to winter, — such methinks, is the 
life of man— it appears for a little while and vanishes ; 
but what shall come after ? what was before ? If this 
new doctrine can teach somewhat of greater certainty, it 
is well that we should regard it." This advice was fol- 



33Q FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



lowed. The new religion ran through the forests like 
flame through the stubble. Being filled with superstition, 
supernatural sights and sounds appalled their awakened 

souls. 

Fishermen drawing in their nets, heard whispers in 
the breeze floating down the rivers, "Jesus, Mary." The 
same aerial voices were heard again and again near the 
largest cities softly breathing " Jesus, Mary." A Druid 
at the altar dropped the knife already suspended above 
the throat of the sacrifice, and trembling, cried out in 
words unknown to himself, " Miserere mei, yesus ! " 

They embraced Christianity and never forsook it, 
though the superstition and customs of their forefathers 
retired but slowly before the new light. They had been 
accustomed upon grand festivals, to drink to the honor 
of the gods, and after their conversion they substituted 
the names of Christ and his apostles, for Esus and the 
twelve ^Esir, shouting and cheering in their intoxication, 
greatly to the distress of the missionaries, who were 
powerless to prevent what seemed to them sheer blas- 
phemy, but to the new converts, only the proper and 
pious course. 

Specimens of the solemn and grand poetry of this 
transition period have been preserved. It bears the im- 
press of both the old and new faith. The poet Adhelm 
sang thus : " For thee a house was built ere thou wast 
born, for thee a mould was shapen ere thou of thy mother 
earnest ; its height is not determined, nor its depth meas- 
ured, nor is it closed till I bring thee where thou must 
remain, until I measure thee and the sod of the earth. 
The roof is built thy breast full nigh, so thou shalt in 
earth dwell, full cold, and dim, and dark. Doorless is 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 33 * 



that house and dark within. There art thou fast-detain- 
ed, and death holds the key." 

Under the guise of myths, stern truths were some- 
times hidden, so awful and startling that we shudder 
as the meaning is revealed. The following is an ex- 
ample : 

The mighty god Thor once went upon a journey, car- 
rying with him the irresistible hammer. He wandered 
into the realm of a great giant, who entertained him 
royally. After a bountiful feast, Thor became boastful 
and challenged the giant to a contest. "Oh, ho ! " said 
the giant, " thou wouldst display thy strength, mighty 
Thor! Thou canst not conquer the oldest of my ser- 
vants." " Call in the old woman," he shouted. Thor 
threw a glance of lofty scorn, and was about to hurl his 
hammer at the giant, who had thus insulted him, when 
a hideous old woman sidled through the door. Her 
form was wasted and decrepit with age, her eyes were 
sunken and dim, her teeth had fallen out, her complexion 
was like parchment, and she shivered as the wind sifted 
through her scanty garments. " And is this my antagon- 
ist," exclaimed the irate war god. " Try her strength," 
laughed the giant. Thor threw his hammer, which 
glanced harmlessly from the old woman's bald skull. 
He then grappled her skinny form, expecting to crush it 
to fragments, but it resisted his power like steel ; with 
losing strength he tried to throw her to the ground, but 
his utmost efforts were in vain. At last, after straining 
and struggling with all his power, he succeeded in lifting 
her once from the earth. Panting and exhausted, he 
leaned against the wall of the castle and gave over the 
contest, while the giant thundered forth, " Oh, ho ! good 



332 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

Thor, thou hast done better than I expected. The old 
woman thou hast fought is named Death ! " 

This redundancy of grim and melancholy imagery, is 
unequalled in any other language, the nearest approach is 
in an Arab couplet : — 

" The black camel named Death 
Kneeleth once at each door, 
And a mortal must mount 
To return never more " — 

and the vision of Job, where tfre formless image passed 
before his eyes, during the trance of midnight slumber, 
the unearthly silence, the solemn voice and the search- 
ing inquiry which caused the hair of his flesh to stand 
up. 

In the constitutional tendency of the northern mind 
to solemn grandeur, were hidden the germs of genius 
which, in after ages developed the finest productions of 
our own or any literature — Shakespeare's dramas, Mil- 
ton's " Paradise Lost," and still more congenital, that ex- 
traordinary allegory, Bunyans " Pilgrim's Progress." 

The modifying and ennobling influence of Christianity 
was never more apparent than in the conversion of the 
Scandinavian tribes ; superstitious credulity was sup- 
planted by Christian faith, piracy was changed to peace- 
ful commerce, cruel ferocity disappeared, the exuberant 
energies of their large natures were redirected to benefi- 
cent and exalted purposes. 

The finest literature, the most perfect governments, 
the largest philanthropy and best social organizations 
have emanated from this Christianized race, and, conse- 
quent upon these conditions, the greatest amount of hu- 
man happiness. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 333 

The religion of the Edda has passed away, but the 
spirit of the Northmen lives, and their blood flows in our 
veins. Let us remember the proverb, "Noblesse oblige " 
— Nobility imposes obligation. 

Says Mr. Wm. Blackwell, " This race, either pure, or 
mixed with the Celtic Roman blood, does now, and 
probably ever will, sway the destinies of the world. The 
Germans, recasting in a Teutonic mould the Hindoo and 
Hellenic philosophy, have arrived at the highest point of 
human intellectuality, and without these systems, modern 
civilization would be but a sensual refinement doomed to 
inevitable decay." The descendants of the uncouth bar- 
barians who gazed with awe at the triumphant cohorts 
of Caesar, are now the rulers of the world, the conserva- 
tors of religion and progress, as they in reality have been 
almost ever since the Christian era. 

At the close of the fourth century after Christ, Pagan 
Rome was mistress of the world, but becoming intoxi- 
cated with wealth and power, was given over to Atheism 
and every vicious and criminal abomination. Upon the 
immoral nations the hottest bolts of God's wrath have 
ever fallen. More grovelling than the brutes, more 
wicked than the fiends, she madly filled to overflowing 
the cup she was soon to drink. Then came Alaric, the 
scourge of God, with his irresistible Visigoths, and im- 
perial Rome was swallowed up in a deluge of blood and 
flame — 

"Across the everlasting Alps 
I poured the torrent of my powers, 
And feeble Caesars shrieked for help 
In vain, within their seven-walled towers,—- 
I quenched in blood the brightest gem 
That glittered in their diadem ; 



334 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

And struck a deeper, darker dye 
In the purple of their majesty." * * 

Later came the fanatic Musselmen with torch and 
sword, sweeping the civilized countries of the world 
with the Saracenic besom of destruction. Christian 
Europe seemed lost, but lo ! Charles Martel, a Frankish 
duke, holds up the rod of power, and the Mahommedan 
aggressor hears his doom : " Thus far shalt thou go and 
no farther, and here shall thy proud armies be stayed." 

The political despotism of old Rome was broken, but 
it was succeeded by that of Papal Rome. By ambitious 
and unscrupulous priest-craft, she enslaved the souls of 
her subjects, producing a moral eclipse throughout the 
world. Men groped in the gloomy realms of superstition 
and idolatry, through a thousand years of intellectual and 
religious darkness. The stifled cry of despair went up 
from the heart of oppressed humanity, and the Almighty 
Father again selected from the same nation the instru- 
ments of vengeance and deliverance. 

Not now proud Alaric, with mace and battle axe, with 
fire and fury, bringing carnage and conflagration, but a 
thousand years after his body had been laid to rest be- 
neath the bed of the mountain stream, Martin Luther, 
equally brave and resolute, armed with " the sword of the 
spirit, the word of God," assaulted the powers of super- 
stition and won the battle of freedom for all future time. 
The seed of religious liberty, although buried deep in 
the German soil, was warmed to life by the fervor of the 
great reformer, and shooting rapidly upward in that genial 
atmosphere became the noble tree " whose leaves are for 
the healing of the nations." 

1 Edward Everett. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 335 



This representative man may be considered as the 
ideal of Christianized Teutonic Force. When warned 
not to appear at the city of Worms, where he was to be 
tried for heresy, his fiery soul poured out sublime defi- 
ance. " I will go," said he, " if there are as many devils 
there as tiles on the roofs of the houses. ,, " The Diet of 
Worms, where Luther was confronted by the emperor 
Charles the Fifth and the German princes, was the most 
remarkable assembly ever convened on earth, — an em- 
pire against a man. There he stood so lone and strong, 
with his great fire-heart, a new Prometheus confronting 
the Jove of the sixteenth century and the German 
Olympus — " Here I stand. I cannot otherwise. God 
help me ! Amen ! " * His eloquence was so overpower- 
ing that Melancthon said of him : " His words were 
thunderbolts." Another contemporary said: " He was a 
man to stop the wrath of God." " His thoughts had not 
only wings but hands. He was not only the tongue, but 
the sword of his time. He was full of the most awful 
reverence and of self-sacrifice in honor of the Holy 
Spirit. He had something original, incomprehensible, 
miraculous, invincible, such as we find in all providential 



men." 2 



Any one who has read the * History of the Reforma- 
tion " and the " Thirty Years' War," who has held his 
very breath from intense interest as he watched the 
struggle of infernal bigotry with the heavenly spirit of 
freedom, who has traced the slow progress of humanity 
toward religious liberty, through seas of blood, must, I 
am sure, adore the transcendent wisdom of Divine Provi- 
dence who created and disciplined a race for this great 

1 Hedge's Prose Writers. 2 Henry Heine. 



33 6 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

purpose — a race endowed with such tremendous will, 
such disregard of self, such indomitable courage, per- 
sistence, such enthusiastic obstinacy ! 

And again religious despotism rears its standard, 
blazoned with the symbol of Christianity : even now it 
essays to crush out religious freedom and would doom 
men to another age of ignorance and priestcraft, and 
again Germania buckles on her armor and straightens 
her sinews to do battle with the prince of the power of 
the air. God defend the right. Amen ! 



CHAPTER XIV. 
THE RELIGION OF GREECE AND ROME— 

ANTHROPOMORPHISM. 
" The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men." 

TN Southern Europe, as in other portions of the world, 
■*• Cyclopian ruins of massive stone masonry, aqueducts, 
viaducts, huge fortifications, temples, and dracontia attest 
the fact of occupation by a prehistoric race. The 
Etrusci, a people who had long been established in Nor- 
thern Italy when Rome was founded 750, B. C, may 
have been the remnants of this race. Their fair com- 
plexion and blue eyes led to the supposition that they 
were a family of Celts, but there are strong indications 
that here, as elsewhere, the great pioneer Turan held 
sway. Like the pre-Aryan tribes in Asia and Central 
Europe, they possessed a remarkable civilization, ruins 
of their extensive public works exhibit characteristics of 
Turanian architecture and engineering. They had sacred 
books said to have been given by one Tages, who appear- 
ed as a boy with the wisdom of an old man, like the Tao 
of China, and more significant than all, they called a 
very ancient deity Ogmius. 

Though according to tradition, at a later day colonists 
from Egypt, Phoenecia and Thrace settled in these 
peninsulas, they have been during historic times in pos- 
session of Aryan tribes, the Pelasgi and Hellenes, chil- 
dren of Javan or Ioun, son of Japhet. 

These countries are the product of the last of twelve 
337 22 



33 s FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



great volcanic upheavals by which the continent of 
Europe was formed. In the midst of a great inland 
ocean, of which the water is exceptionally salt and the 
evaporation so tremendous, that currents from the Atlan- 
tic and the Black Sea constantly flow into it, visited by 
warm south wind from the African desert, rarely bring- 
ing rain, but a moist and healthful vapor gathered during 
its passage across the great sea, with diversified scenery, 
fertile soil and extended coast line, these highly favored 
lands combine every condition bountiful nature can be- 
stow, for the health, wealth, and progressive, development 
of the human race. Under soft and genial but not ener- 
vating skies, delicious fruits are ripened, redundant har- 
vests are gathered, and numerous flocks and herds sus- 
tained. The summer sun never scorches, the winter wind 
does -not chill. The poets sang " The Greeks ever deli- 
cately march through pellucid air." There was no inter- 
ruption to out-door occupation, no tedious and hampering 
preparation for changes of season, here every intellectual 
and aesthetic quality of the human soul expanded, all 
that was grand, profound or beautiful in architecture, 
sculpture, painting, poetry, philosophy or oratory flour- 
ished and was perfected. The owners of this happy 
land were gifted with great personal beauty, a magnifi- 
cent physique, a remarkable tendency to longevity, an 
eminently martial spirit, energy, courage and firmness, all 
the requisites necessary to make them the conquerors 
and civilizers of the world, and such in fact, for ages, 
were the Greek and Roman nations. Their language, 
rich, elegant and adapted to every variety of expression, 
was only second to the Sanscrita, " the language of the 
gods, that which is perfect in itself." Though the 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 339 

Greeks were inclined to piracy and the Romans to brig- 
andage, under the favoring auspices before mentioned, 
the colonists rapidly increased, built large cities and 
founded governments fair and free like those of their 
Asiatic ancestors. 

Their morning is enveloped in the haze of mythology. 
Then lived Homer and Hesiod, Danaus and Egyptus, 
Cecrops brought art and civilization from old Egypt. 
The Argonauts sailed in search of the golden fleece, the 
peerless Helen eloped with her enamored Paris, and thus 
became the occasion of the Trojan war, inspired the muse 
of Homer and Virgil, and was the subject of song and 
story without end. This was the age of Bellerophon and 
the Chimera, the Cyclops, the Centaurs and Harpies, 
the Syrens and Gorgons, the Lotos Eaters whose insane 
appetite overpowered all memory of friends and home. 
Then the twin boys, who were to found Rome, were nour- 
ished by a wolf, the Sybil offered her precious books, the 
mysterious Egeria revealed law and religion to Numa, 
the triplet Horatii and Curatii fought the five-fold fatal 
duel and Curtius Marcus leaped into the yawning gulf 
to save beloved Rome ! 

Gladly would we linger in this enchanted region of 
myth and story, where airy Zephyrus laden with odorous 
May blossoms and bearing the songs of birds and shep- 
herds, breathes into our common-place and care-worn 
lives, a reminiscence of the thrill and glow which is ex- 
perienced but once during mortal existence, in the fleet- 
ing hour of youth's first romance 

But the religions of the ancient Greeks and Romans 
claim one present thought. In those we have previously 



340 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 



investigated, there has been found a strong tendency to 
the worship of the heavenly bodies and the forces of na- 
ture; they were founded upon fear and superstition, 
overshadowed with gloom and celebrated with cruel and 
sometimes obscene rites, though often made tolerable by 
lofty morals and philosophy. 

In the beautiful clime of the Northern Mediterranean 
countries, although religion retained many of its Asiatic 
characteristics, a more cheerful view of life and duty pre- 
vailed. It was believed that the earth was an extended 
plain, in the centre of which rose Mount Olympus, the 
abode of the gods. In the far north and south were the 
Hyperboreans and Ethiopians, people happy and virtu- 
ous, exempt from disease, old age, toil and care. In the 
far west were the Elysian Plains and the Isles of the 
Blessed, where the beloved of the gods resided after 
death. Beneath the crater of an extinct volcano was 
Lake Avernus, and in a gloomy cavern upon its banks 
sit Grief and Care, Disease, Age, Hunger, Fear, Toil, 
Poverty and Death. Monsters fill up the dreadful group, 
the Furies, Discord, Hydras, Chimeras and hundred 
armed giants. A dark river, the Styx, flowed from this 
cavern to the infernal regions, and upon its cold waters 
an aged ferryman, Charon, plied his boat freighted with 
the souls of the wicked, who were to be punished till sin 
was purged away and the remembrance of their former 
life lost. If too wicked to be purified in this way, they 
were doomed to pass into the bodies of reptiles or an- 
imals, the Hindoo metempsychosis, till at the last, rest 
would be found in the Elysian Fields. 

The nations who held these ideas, worshipped deities 
made after their own image, immortal men and women 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 341 

larger, stronger and more beautiful, but with wants, 
weaknesses and passions like their own. They ate, 
drank, slept, made love and war, cheated and circum- 
vented each other even more than their worshippers, 
who excused their misconduct upon the plea that they 
must not be fudged by the rules which regulate human 
society. 

Saturn and Rhea, the oldest of the gods, were Titans, 
the offspring of heaven and earth which were formed 
from Chaos. Saturn, whose synonym, Chronos, means 
Time, devoured his children, but one of them, Jupiter or 
Zeus, married Metis (Prudence), who mixed a draught 
which caused Saturn to disgorge his prey. They then 
conspired and dethroned their father, dividing his realm 
among themselves. Jupiter reigned in heaven, Neptune 
in the sea, Pluto in the region of the dead ; Juno was 
the wife of Jupiter and the queen of heaven ; Iris, the 
rainbow, attended her. Vulcan, their son, was a wonder- 
ful blacksmith and forger ; being born lame, his morti- 
fied mother threw him out of heaven, or his father kicked 
him out during a conjugal quarrel. Mars the god of 
war, was a brother of Vulcan. 

Phoebus Apollo was the Sun god Diana, his sister, 
goddess of the Moon and Chastity. 

Venus, goddess of love and beauty, sprung from the 
foam of the sea. Floating to the island of Cyprus, she 
was brought up by the Seasons and presented to the 
Olympic court. She owned the Cestus, an embroidered 
girdle which had the power of inspiring love. Swans, 
doves, roses and myrtles were sacred to her. She was 
married to Vulcan, the ill-favored and lame god. 

Cupid or Eros, the son of Venus, was the god of 



342 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

love, whose magic bow shot the arrows of desire into the 
hearts of gods and men. 

Minerva, sometimes called Pallas or Athene, came 
from the head of her father fully armed. She was the 
goddess of wisdom ; the owl and olive were sacred to 
her. 

Mercury was the messenger of the gods, the patron of 
skill and dexterity, even in the commission of crime. He 
had a cap and shoes with wings, and bought from Apollo 
the Caduceus, a walking stick entwined with two winged 
serpents, giving him in exchange a lyre which he had in- 
vented. In this myth we perceive the union of Sun and 
Serpent worship. Apollo being the sun, and the walking 
stick being the Phallus with winged snakes. 

Ceres presided over agriculture, and was mother of 
Proserpine, goddess of the dead. 

Bacchus was the promoter of law, peace and social 
enjoyment and the god of wine. 

Hymen was god of marriage, son of Venus and Bac- 
chus or, according to others, of Apollo and one of the 
Muses, a myth which significantly classifies marriage. 

The Muses were nine, the daughters of Jupiter and 
Mnemosyne or Memory — Calliope presided over epic 
poetry ; Clio, history ; Euterpe, lyric poetry ; Melpomene, 
tragedy ; Terpsichore, dancing ; Erato, love poetry ; 
Polyhymnia, sacred poetry; Urania, astronomy, and 
Thalia, comedy. 

The Graces patronized social pleasure and art. They 
were Euphrosyne, Aglai, and Thalia. 

The Fates were Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, they 
spun the thread of human life and cut it at will with 
their shears. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 343 

The three Furies punished by secret stings and whips 
those criminals who escaped human justice. They were 
named Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. Nemesis, the 
relentless, was the goddess of vengeance. Pan was the 
god of shepherds, the lover of rural retreats. The Satyrs 
were subordinate deities with bristly hair, horns and feet 
like goats. They lived in forests and fields. Momus 
was the god of merriment — Plutus of gold. The gods of 
the Romans were almost identical with those of the 
Greeks, with a difference often in name, sterner and 
more dignified, modelled after the Roman type of char- 
acter. Quirinus was a war god, said to be the apothe- 
osized Romulus. Belladonna, a war goddess ; Terminus 
the god of land marks ; Pales presided over gardens and 
pastures ; Pomona over fruit trees ; Lucina over child- 
birth. Vesta presided over the public and private hearth ; 
six virgins tended the fire on her altars, which was kin- 
dled from the rays of the sun. 

Janus was the porter of heaven. He is represented 
as two-faced, looking both ways. His temples were al- 
ways open in time of war. 

The Penates were household deities. The pantry 
was sacred to them. The Lares were the deified souls 
of ancestors who watched over the family prosperity. 1 

These deities did not command very much love or re- 
ect, in fact they were really unfit for respectable so- 
ciety. They sometimes visited the earth, grand and 
beautiful in form, occasionally bringing blessings to man- 
kind, but oftener mingling in human affairs to their great 
disadvantage. 

1 Summary of deities as found in Bullfinch's "Age of Fable." 



344 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

Being powerful and irresponsible, they must be pro- 
pitiated, and were accordingly worshipped with gorgeous 
pageants and other rites conducted in the open air of that 
delicious climate, or under the wide and lofty porticoes of 
magnificent temples. In the enclosed portion or adytum 
of these edifices, sculptured images of the gods were ele- 
gantly enshrined. 

Upon these occasions, elected priests offered sacri- 
fices of fruit, flowers, fragrant gums and libations, anim- 
als, and, more rarely, a beautiful youth or maiden. Prayer 
accompanied the sacrifice, and was almost universally of- 
fered morning and evening. The Spartan form was 
laconic, " May the gods grant whatever is honorable and 
good for us, and enable us to endure misfortune." The 
infernal deities were invoked with awful imprecations. 

The Olympiads were general conventions held every 
fourth year, not unlike, but more comprehensive than our 
agricultural fairs. 

During their celebration, four great religious festivals 
were observed, called the Olympic, the Pythean, the Ne- 
mean and the Isthmian. Another important festival was 
held every fifth year in honor of Minerva, the goddess of 
wisdom. Upon these joyous occasions, the people uni- 
versally abandoned themselves to pleasure. Games and 
contests took place, horse, foot, and chariot races, athletes, 
poets, musicians, historians and philosophers strove for 
the simple chaplet of bay-leaves which conferred im- 
mortal fame. 

Cavalcades of horsemen, gay processions, dancing, 
music and recitations, added to the interest of the enter- 
tainment. 

The gods gave no written law or sacred books to 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 345 



their worshippers, but sometimes revealed their will 
through oracles. 

The most famous was that at Delphi, where a tem- 
ple was erected over a fissure in a rock, whence issued 
mephitic gases. A priestess, called a Pythoness, inhaled 
this gas, and falling into a delirious state, uttered wild 
ravings, which the priests interpreted for the benefit of 
the inquirers. The oracle was generally vague and ca- 
pable of various interpretations and much imposture was 
undoubtedly practised, but after all due allowance is 
made, the answers were often inexplicable. Some in- 
vestigators believe that a clairvoyant condition was in- 
duced by the inhalation of the gas, and others that an evil 
spirit actually communicated with the priestess of the 
serpent deity Python. 

Divination and magic were also practiced, a super- 
stition inseparable from Paganism. A more exalted and 
spiritual faith was called " The Mysteries." They were 
of Egyptian origin, and were celebrated in a secret man- 
ner. Those dedicated to Ceres and solemnized at Eleu- 
sis, had reference to the expiation of sin and a future 
life. They were never made the subject of jest even by 
the most skeptical satirists. Those initiated, exhibited 
great calmness in the presence of danger and of death. 
During the midnight initiatory rites, thunders shook the 
temple, flashes of lightning revealed apparitions, the 
adytum blazed with light, the image of the goddess ap- 
peared in glory, and apparently supernatural pageants 
passed before the sight. 

It seems that both Egyptians and Greeks understood 
the art of producing what is called in modern theatrical 
parlance, "transformation scenes." 



346 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

One hymn to Jupiter, used upon these solemn occa- 
sions, has been preserved. It closes thus : " Oh, great 
Jupiter ! giver of all good, that dwellest with the light- 
nings in the clouds of heaven, save mankind from dread- 
ful errors, remove all shadows from our minds and en- 
able us to understand thy pure and righteous law. Thus 
honored with knowledge of thee, we shall be fitted to re- 
turn the gift in praises of thy mighty works, and neither 
mortal or immortal beings can be more blest than in 
praising thine immutable and universal law with ever- 
lasting hymns. " 

The poet -^Eschylus has a remarkable prayer in one 
of his poems beginning, " Oh Thou who reignest su- 
preme above, whatever name thou deignest to bear, un- 
blamed may I address thee, Jove." 

The Mysteries of Bacchus were of a low and sensual 
character. 

The principal religious festival of the Romans was 
the Saturnalia; during its celebration, distinctions of 
rank were abolished, business, war and executions were 
suspended, and the whole people given over to feasting 
and enjoyment. The pageants, fetes, circuses, games 
and gladiatorial shows of the Romans were on a grander 
scale than those of Greece, and accompanied by brutal 
exhibitions, fights between men, between brutes, and be- 
tween men and beasts, demoralizing entertainments 
which destroyed all the gentler sentiments of the human 
heart and produced a distaste for intellectual enjoyment 
or social pleasure, gradually transforming the most cul- 
tivated spectators into ruffians. In these brutalizing 
scenes, even the women joined, and were sometimes 
seen to give the death signal against the exhausted, sur- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 347 

viving combatant, by turning down their thumbs. Alas, a 
nation is doomed when its women lose their humanity. 

The Romans were very liberal in their religious views, 
readily adopting the gods of the nations they conquered 
and allowing the fullest liberty to their worshippers when 
in Rome. The exceptional persecution of the Christians 
will be considered hereafter. The religion of both nations 
was mainly free and attractive, with little restraint and 
imposition, and to this cause may be attributed the in- 
tellectual elasticity perceptible in the people. 

Mr. J. F. Clark says : " In that garden of the world 
ripened the master-pieces of epic, tragic, comic, lyric, and 
didactic poetry, the master-pieces of every school of 
philosophic investigation, of history, oratory and mathe- 
matics, the master-pieces of architecture, sculpture, and 
painting. Greece developed every form of human gov- 
ernment, and in Greece were fought and won the great 
battles of the world.'' 

This estimate is somewhat sweeping as far as art and 
philosophy are concerned, but the last assertion of the 
panegyrist is open to graver doubt. The most tremendous 
struggle of humanity for freedom of thought, the sharp- 
est battle with tyranny and superstition which history 
records, took place in the sixteenth century, not in Greece, 
but in Holland, and was fought out to the glorious 
end, not by the gay Hellenic tribes, but by gloomy pon- 
derous Teutons. Greek bravery, Roman firmness, and 
an awful devotion to principle, which towers far above 
either, appear in the men who won that stupendous vic- 
tory at the cost of the lives of a whole generation ! 

In the early ages of Greece and Rome, virtue was 
honored. Polygamy was discountenanced, even prohibit- 



348 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

ed by law in Rome. Women as priestesses, shared the 
highest dignities with men — a position which they lost 
when society became corrupt. In the decadence of these 
nations personal morality was almost unknown — a con- 
dition which is the sure presage of destruction. 

In the anthropomorphism of these nations, in the un- 
stable and immoral character of their deities there was 
no element of permanence such as is found in monothe- 
istic religions. The antinomies so apparent in human 
life, and the moral government of the world, antagonisms 
which modern materialists ignore in their excessive zeal 
to establish the laws of physics, the ancient philosophers 
explained by the existence of a principle called Fate or 
Destiny — to this the gods themselves were subject — and 
before it they were powerless, an idea which tinged with 
hopeless gloom the substratum of Greek thought. Fate 
was an excuse for the most unnatural crimes, but gave 
the offender no exemption from punishment. The whips 
and strings of the Furies, or the avenging Nemesis, pun- 
ished the crime for which Destiny alone was responsible. 

Among people so intelligent were many men unsatis- 
fied with the popular faith and disgusted by the puerility 
and immorality of the gods. The great enigmas, physical 
law, the origin of the universe, the conflict of good and 
evil, moral government of the world, and the mysterious 
connection of the soul and body, occupied their pro- 
foundest thought. It will be interesting to review the 
results, for we shall rejoice to find much of God's eternal 
truth in these speculations and discover that the revela- 
tion of his law is not confined to the Hebrew nation. 

Orpheus, as was believed, brought from Thrace not 
only a knowledge of the Egyptian Mysteries, but the 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 349 

doctrines of the immortality of the soul and of future re- 
ward and punishment. A maxim attributed to him thus 
describes the Deity : " There is One Unknown Being 
prior to and exalted above all others. He is the author 
of all things, the ethereal sphere and all belonging to it. 
He is Life, Counsel and Light, which three names all 
signify One Power, the same which drew all things visible 
and invisible out of nothing. We will sing that eternal, 
all-wise, all-perfect Love which reduced the Chaos into 
Order." This is not unlike the expression of St. John, 
1st chap. : " In the beginning was the Word (Love) and 
the Word was with God and the Word was God. All 
things were made by Him and without Him was not any 
thing made that was made. In Him was Life and the 
Life was the Light of men. n 

Thales who lived 600 B. C. (one of the seven wise 
men) declared : " The most ancient of all things is God 
for He is uncreated. " One of his proverbs is : u Be careful 
not to do that yourself which you would blame in another." 

Pittacus, another wise man, said : " Do not that to 
your neighbor which you would take ill from him." 

" Speak evil of none, not even of your enemies." 

Pythagoras, 500 B.C., a man of great learning, purity 
of doctrine and of life, called himself, not a wise man, 
but a philosopher, a lover of wisdom " because," said he 
"none is wise but God." He believed, like the ancient 
Hindoos, that " there is one universal soul diffused 
through all things eternal, invisible, unchangeable in 
essence-like truth, in substance-like Light, not to be re- 
presented by any image, to be comprehended only by 
mind, not exterior to the world, but in himself entire, 
pervading the universal sphere. From this being eman- 



3SO FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

ated all things and to the immortal source they finally 
return. ,, 

Xenophanus declared that " God is one eternal 
Almighty perfect being, living in eternity and existing in 
time/' Empedocles that " God is an Almighty Being, 
related to the world as Love is to Discord. Evil is that 
which is out of harmony with Him." 

Anaxagoras believed that " God is a Divine Mind, 
personal and distinct from matter which he controls by 
his power/' Exposing the frauds of the priests, he was 
condemned to death. When informed of his condemna- 
tion he quietly remarked " That sentence was passed upon 
me when I was born." 

Socrates, the greatest of Greek philosophers and mor- 
alists, possessed an extraordinary knowledge of truth, 
and conscientiously practised his own doctrines through 
along life of self-subjection. Though his face was ugly 
and figure awkward, his great self-control, disinterested- 
ness, voluntary poverty, his learning, affability, winning 
voice and fascinating conversation, attracted a host of 
friends and admirers. He devoted his life to reforming 
and elevating the youth of Athens. He did not deny the 
popular deities, but taught that there is One Supreme 
Being who is manifested in the works of creation and 
providence. Unlike the pseudo philosophers of the pres- 
ent day, he declared that " only a madman would im- 
pute success in life solely to human prudence." " The 
Deity sees and hears all things, is everywhere present, 
and takes care of all things. If men believed this they 
would abstain from bad actions, even in private." Socrates 
taught that the soul is immortal, because allied to the 
Divine Being by a similarity of nature, but not as eman- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 35 1 

ating from Him. Conscience is the true interpreter of 
the Divine will. He denounced the practice of swearing 
by the gods, and offered his disciples this form of prayer : 
" Father Jupiter, give us all good, whether we ask it or 
not ; avert from us all evil, although v/e do not pray Thee 
to do so ; bless our good actions and reward them with 
success and happiness." 

His fearless reproof of vice and caustic exposure of 
fraud, the more dreaded on account of his great popular- 
ity, gained him enemies, who charged him with dishonor- 
ing the gods and corrupting the youth of Athens. He 
was now seventy years of age. The old story, then, as 
at the present time, was repeated. Successful virtue ex- 
cited fear and envy in base natures, and persecution was 
the inevitable consequence. Socrates the pure, the 
patient and unselfish, the educator of the young and 
benefactor of society, was condemned to death by drink- 
ing poison. He spent his last days calmly discoursing 
with his friends upon the duty of obedience to the laws 
and upon the doctrine of immortality, closing with this 
remark as the fatal moment approached : " It is now time 
that we depart. I to die, you to live, but which is the 
better destiny is known only to the gods." 

Thus tranquilly passed to his reward "the man," says 
Plato " who was in death the noblest and in life the 
wisest and most just." 

This famous disciple of Socrates was more metaphys- 
ical than his master. Plato was in some respects a tran- 
scendentalism arguing that love may be divested of pas- 
sion and desire — a beautiful theory which has always 
failed in practice. With a clearer insight into truth, he 
asserted " it is hard to find the Maker and Father 



352 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

of all, the best word to express his nature is goodness/' — 
the same which we now use in its abbreviated form, God. 

Aristotle, a pupil of Plato, taught that God is supreme, 
but not that he is personal, or that the soul will have a 
future individuality. He adopted the philosophy of the 
Sankhya — the eternity of soul and atoms, emanation 
and absorption, — a dismal, dangerous belief which divests 
man of responsibility, robs him of the glorious hope of 
immortality, and reduces moral law to a temporary ex- 
pedient, a conventional arrangement instituted simply for 
the convenience of society. 

Zeno, father of the Stoics, who lived B.C. 300, believed 
the world and God himself to be " under the dominion 
of a supreme Law or Destiny. The existence of matter 
is as a moment in that of Deity. The earth will be 
burned and re-created, and the soul being mere warm 
breath will not endure till the general conflagration, un- 
less its energy, strengthened by virtue, is unusually great/ ' 
His doctrines are a reproduction of Hindoo ideas. "We 
must despise all our propensities and passions, then we 
shall be free, virtuous and intelligent/' 

" Live according to reason ; in harmony with nature." 

" Man must train himself to receive tranquilly the 
shocks of destiny and live above pain and passion/' 

" He must never relent or forgive." 

One of his maxims to which we can all assent, is, 
" Sticks can only be straight or crooked, and very few 
sticks are absolutely straight." 

When Zeno was nearly one hundred years old he fell 
and broke a finger ; and taking this misfortune to be a 
sign that he had lived long enough, forgot his philosophy 
and committed suicide by strangling himself. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 353 

Some of the loveliest characters of antiquity were 
disciples of Zeno. 

Of Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, at the height 
of its grandeur and power, it is said : " He was the most 
consummate production of ancient philosophy." 1 " The 
best and dearest of the line." 2 " Great in war, greater 
in peace, he was one of the ornaments of humanity," 3 
" as nearly a perfectly virtuous man as has ever appeared 
*v^ upon #n a- world." Tried by the checkered events of a 
reign of nineteen years, presiding over a society pro- 
foundly corrupt, over a city notorious for its license, the 
perfection of his character awed even calumny into silence* 
and the spontaneous sentiment of his people proclaimed 
him a god rather than a man. Very few men have ever 
lived, concerning whose inner life we can speak so con- 
fidently. His Meditations form one of the truest and 
most impressive books in religious literature. ,, 4 " A 
golden book, though there are m^ny things in it, which 
cannot be read without the deepest sympathy, for there 
we find this purest of men without happiness." 5 He 
scorned the seductions of wealth, and power. His 
conscientious performance of the distasteful duties of a 
military leader, his searching self-examination, the sever- 
ity with which he condemned himself, his tenderness to- 
ward others, even the vicious, excite our surprise and ad- 
miration, while his great trials, the vice, immorality and 
crime in his empire which he was powerless to prevent 
and which he knew were the precursors of its destruction, 
the infidelity of his wife, the depravity of his son, and 
many minor calamities which darkened his last days, fill 
us with profound and melancholy sympathy. We bow, 

1 Merivale. 2 Smith. 3 Dr. John Lord. 4 Lecky. 5 Niebuhr. 

23 



354 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

not before the imperial crown and purple of Rome, but 
to the majesty of Stoic virtue, which may well bring the 
blush of shame to the cheek of many a professing Chris- 
tian ! 

It seems almost inexplicable that the Christians should 
have been persecuted in Rome even during the reign of 
this humane monarch, but various reasons operated to 
blind the eyes of the emperor to the merits and beauty of 
docrines which were so greatly in harmony with his own 
spiritual life. The policy of the Roman government had 
always been protective to the religious faith and practice 
of the conquered nations — their gods were more honored 
at Rome than in their original home, but anything that 
savored of heresy or rebellion was contrary to the princi- 
ples of state, and was vigorously suppressed as incendiary 
and dangerous. The new religion was considered as a 
Jewish heresy, and more than this simple fact, it was of all 
others the most democratic and levelling in its doctrines, 
antagonistic to the despotism of the rulers, who were 
sagacious enough to perceive that its universal propa- 
gation would endanger the supremacy of imperial Rome, 
the one idea of Italian Government in the past, as also 
at the present time. In addition to these reasons was 
the fact that the idle, embruted, demoralized populace of 
Rome must be entertained. Every form of cruel exhibi- 
tion had become exhausted. " The Christians to the 
lions " was a novel cry, their calm triumph over death in 
the amphitheatre, a new sensation. The increasing taste 
for blood was thus conveniently gratified, the persecu- 
tions were popular, the immense amphitheatres were 
thronged, hundreds of thousands of citizens and stran- 
gers rushed to witness the death of heroic men and 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 355 

beautiful women, torn to pieces by wild beasts " to grace 
a Roman holiday." 

The hour of doom hastened. All the advantages of cli- 
mate, of physical perfection in the race, enormous wealth 
and power, universal dominition, a firmly established gov- 
ernment, perfected civilization, art. and philosophy, avail- 
ed not to save from the dissolution inevitable to moral 
corruption. Rome, haughty, and as she fondly believed, 
invincible, though glittering with wealth and power, and 
guarded by veteran legions, fell before the ravages of half- 
armed, half-clad barbarians. Christianity came too late ; 
while it was pure the lowly alone accepted it, after the 
conversion of Constantine, it became corrupt and lost its 
vitality. Roman paganism and Jewish rites were engraft- 
ed upon the original stock, encumbered thus it failed, and 
till it can be divested of these clogs, it will never put forth 
its inherent strength. 

The crowded pantheon of Greece and Rome fell by its 
own weight, " a belief in no God, is a necessary con- 
sequence of an unlimited multiplicity of deities." The old 
religion was moribund in the reign of Constantine, the very 
language of old Rome was soon after lost or absorbed into 
that of its barbarian conquerers. Philosophy had six hun- 
dred years before established its seat at Alexandria in 
Egypt, all the learning in the world was there concentrated, 
the conceited Jew, the dreamy Hindoo, the subtile Greek, 
and the serious Magian, met in its magnificent schools and 
freely discussed their various beliefs and theories, but their 
combined wisdom failed to sustain suffering virtue, or the 
anxious soul in its endeavor to solve the great problems 
of life, death and eternity. " Under the shadow* of the 
Pyramids, Greek philosophy was born, and after many 



35 6 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

wanderings for a thousand years around the shores of the 
Mediterranean, it came back to its native place, and under 
the shadow of the Pyramids it died." ? 

It died ; but Christianity received from its parting 
breath all that was worth preserving for the advancement 
of the human race. Nations may perish, the wisest po- 
litical organizations fail, religions and philosophies pass 
away, but Truth is indestructible, it will live forever. 

1 Dr. Draper. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MAHOMET AND HIS RELIGION. 
" La Ilah Ilia Allah." 

WONDERFUL ruins in the peninsula of Arabia ren- 
der it a spot of transcendent interest to the student 
of natiquity. Mounds of dust and ashes lying upon the desert- 
ed plains, and remains of serpent structures, mark the site of 
great cities, dwelling places of a people whose very memory 
is lost in the vanishing perspective of past ages. Vague 
Sanscrit and Egyptian myths, indicate that at an exceed- 
ingly remote period, perhaps more than ten thousand years 
ago, this peninsula was the seat of a mighty empire, 
which dispensed from its great centres, an astonishing 
civilization and wealth to Indian, Chaldean and Egyptian 
colonies. The oldest Greek writers speak of the spices, 
perfumes, gold, silver, rich cloths, magnificent buildings, 
and untold wealth of this treasury of the world. 

The name given to this great empire may afford 
us a possibility of conjecture. In Sanscrit legends it is 
called Cusha-dwipa, the country of the Cushites, in Greek 
it is Ethiopia or Arabia y words which may mean nations 
of Ob or land of Ob, Again the philological lamp flashes 
its light across the folds of the great serpent. 

Later in the world's morning here reigned the giants, 
Og, King of Bashan, and Og, King of the Amorites, rem- 
nants, perhaps, of former majesty. The ruins of their 
cities still fill the traveller with awe. They are hewn from 
the black basalt rocks, gigantic tenements gloomy as 

357 



3S 8 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

grand, where stone doors still hang upon stone hinges, de- 
fying the strength of modern arms to move them. This 
is the land spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah, " I have 
sworn saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a desola- 
tion, a reproach, a waste, and a curse ; all the cities shall 
be perpetual wastes. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, 
and the pride of thy heart. Oh ! thou that dwellest in the 
clefts of the rocks, that holdest the heights of the hill ; 
though thou shouldst make thy nest on high as the eagle, 
I will bring thee down irom thence, saith the Lord. Edom 
shall be a desolation, every one that goeth by it shall be 
astonished." Thus said the ancient prophet, while the 
modern poet sings : 

" Where arose in marble grandeur, 
The walled cities of the past, 
Solemn wailing winds now wander, 
O'er a ruined huddled waste, 
Riven is the palace splendid, 
And the owl in silence wings 
Over floors, where slave attended, 
Paced the sandalled feet of kings." 

In the stony desert of Arabia are the ruins of 
metallurgic works, where the ancient Egyptians manufac- 
tured idols and ornaments, here the Hebrew nation was 
organized by Moses, and the immortal code of divine law 
was promulgated. 

To this storied land, long centuries before the Exodus, 
came the Egyptian Hagar and her boy Ishmael, when the 
command was given, " Cast out the bondwoman and her 
child." Here the kingdom of Hedjaz flourished, to which 
the fainting Hagar fled, sustained by God's promise, 
"Twelve princes shall Ishmael beget, and I will make him 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE, 359 

a great nation." The son of Abraham married the daugh- 
ter of King Modad, and their twelve sons, increased in 
time to twelve tribes, subjugated the native race, and be- 
came the ruling power. The prophecy that " Ishmael 
should be a wild man, whose hand should be against every 
man, and every man's hand against him," is also fulfilled 
by the character and habits of the Arabs to this day. 

Some of the early tribes lived in cities built in the 
rich, warm valleys of Arabia Felix, others led a pastoral, 
nomadic life. Such Bedouins were Job, Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob and Lot. Others conducted caravans across the des- 
ert, from the great seas upon the borders of their coun- 
try to the inland cities. Collisions between these rovers 
resulted in constant warfare. Revenge for deeds of blood 
was a sacred duty, tempered in practice by the rules of 
hospitality, which made a man's dwelling a safe place even 
for his deadliest foe. 

The Arab was physically adapted to his mode of life, 
active, meagre, sinewy, his mind sagacious and brilliant, 
though not profound, his speech passionate and eloquent, 
his habits simple, temperate and hardy. 

The Theism taught by Ishmael became in time mix- 
ed with Persian and Chaldean ideas ; star worship and 
magic, the sacrifice of infants and even men, was intro- 
duced with other vile rites of Sabaeism. After the Chris- 
tian Era, to these gross corruptions were added the most 
perverted ideas of Judaism and Christianity, many 
Christian monks having been driven, by theological dis- 
tractions, to the deserts of Syria and Arabia. 

It was at this crisis when the Arab tribes were de- 
graded and disintegrated, that among them was born one 
of the mighty men of the earth, one of those giants of 



360 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

intellect, genius, and tact, who was destined to revolu- 
tionize the eastern world, and upon whose teachings nine 
hundred millions of human beings have rested their hopes 
of salvation ! 

Mahomet the Great, was born at Mecca, one of the 
inland cities of Arabia, 570, A.D. Prodigies, it is said, 
attended his birth. The fire in the Magian temples was 
suddenly extinguished without apparent cause, the palace 
of the King of Persia trembled as if about to fall, and 
the Kadi in a night vision, saw an Arab horseman con- 
quer a ferocious camel. It was prophesied that the newly 
born child would found an empire. 

His parents, who belonged to an illustrious Arab 
family, died when he was very young and he was left to 
the care of his uncle Abu Taleb, who was the keeper of 
a sacred temple, built, it was believed, by Ishmael, near 
the fountain which saved his life when wandering in the 
desert with his mother. The angel Gabriel had inserted 
in the wall of this building a jacinth of dazzling white- 
ness, but tainted by the impure breath of worshipping 
sinners it had become the " black stone of Mecca." 
This temple, called the Caaba, with its sacred objects, 
made Mecca, the ■ Kebla, or point of adoration, towards 
which the pious Arab turned during prayer, and to which 
pilgrims resorted during four months every year, to wash 
in the miraculous fountain, kiss the black stone, and 
make a seven-fold circuit of the Caaba which was filled 
with idols. The boy Mahomet, who constantly witnessed 
these ceremonies, thus came to regard religious duty as 
of first importance. When about twelve years of age, 
he accompanied a caravan across the desert, and halted 
at the hermitage of a Christian monk, who had retired to 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 361 

the desert after the manner of the times. From the con- 
versations of his uncle with this monk, upon the first and 
many subsequent journeys, Mahomet, who was a serious 
listener and who had a remarkable memory, obtained a 
very fair idea of Christianity. From Arab .tradition and 
intercourse with Jews, he also became acquainted with 
the Mosaic writings, although he never learned to read. 
He grew up to manhood a handsome, intelligent, self- 
poised young man, full of energy and enterprise and hav- 
ing attracted the attention of a rich widow, who wished 
a shrewd business manager to take charge of a large 
property, he received from her a proposal of marriage 
which he readily accepted, though she was fifteen years 
his senior, and had already been twice widowed. To 
this woman, Kadijah, a person of remarkable strength 
and excellence of character, he was devoted and constant 
till her death which occurred twenty-one years after the 
marriage, when she was sixty-five years old. For several 
years subsequent to his marriage with Kadijah, Mahomet, 
now one of the richest and most influential citizens of 
Mecca, followed mercantile pursuits, and was so greatly 
respected for integrity that he obtained the name of Ala- 
min, The Faithful. The intimate friendship of Waraka, 
his wife's cousin, who was once a Jew and now a Chris- 
tian, turned his thoughts to the religious condition of his 
countrymen so sunken in gross paganism. He felt that 
a prophet was needed to effect a reformation, and with- 
drew to a cave in Mount Hara, where after long vigils and 
fasts he would pass into a state of hallucination, seeing 
supernatural sights and hearing supernatural voices. 

On one memorable occasion after an unusually pro- 
tracted fast in the sacred month Ramadan, as he lay un- 



362 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

conscious upon the stone floor of the cavern, a voice 
roused him and he saw the angel Gabriel holding a silken 
scroll in his hand. " Read " said the angel. " I know not 
how to read," he replied. " Read," repeated Gabriel, " in 
the name of the Lord who created all things. Read in 
the name of the Most High who taught men the use of 
the pen, who sheds on his soul the ray of knowledge and 
teaches him what he knew not." 

Then Mahomet, suddenly inspired, gazed upon the 
scroll and read there the decrees and will of God ! The 
angel saluted him " Prophet of God," and vanished. 

From this time Mahomet believed himself inspired, 
greater in authority than Abraham, Ishmael, Jacob, 
Moses and Christ, because to him was confided the final 
revelation. 

The name given to the new religion wnich he pro- 
mulgated was, Islam submission ; its principal dogma, 
" There is but one God and Mahomet is his prophet," its 
two grand ideas are monotheism and fatalism. 

Its prohibition of idolatry was so sweeping that no 
images or pictures of men or animals were allowed even 
in domestic architecture, a sentiment which in after 
years, found expression in the beautiful style of ornamen- 
tation called Arabesque, composed only of floral and 
geometrical forms. Mahomet taught the existence of 
angels and devils, of Paradise, a place of sensual delight, 
with perpetually renewed powers of enjoyment for the 
faithful, and Jehennam or hell, where the wicked were 
subjected to eternal remorse, despair and bodily pain. 
There was also a middle place called Alaraf, where in- 
fants, idiots, and those whose good and evil deeds exactly 
balanced were sent. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 363 

Faith in God, honesty, truth, almsgiving, charity, 
justice and humility, were enjoined. Falsehood, decep- 
tion, trickery in trade, gambling and the use of intoxica- 
ting drink were forbidden. Slavery, human sacrifice and 
the cruel practice of female infanticide were denounced. 

A form of prayers was to be used five times a day 
with prostrations of the body. Polygamy, the old rites 
of pilgrimages to Mecca, the circuit of the Caaba, kiss- 
ing the black stone, and ablutions in the well Zem Zem, 
were permitted. 

Friday was to be observed as the sacred day, and the 
faithful were to be called to prayer by men with sonorous 
voices, stationed upon the top of the mosques, the sacred 
buildings. These doctrines were delivered by Mahomet 
orally and committed to writing by his disciples, the book 
being named the Koran or Reading. The Mahommedan 
Bible is a marvellous jumble of truth and error, sublime 
poetry and illiterate vulgarity, sensual materialism and 
frivolous puerility. Its logic and science are ridiculous. 
The Deity is described as a giant, in terms repulsive and 
almost blasphemous. The crudest theories of an ignor- 
ant mind are advanced in explanation of natural pheno- 
mena. Meteors are celestial missiles shot from heaven 
at wicked angels, the dome of heaven is a perfect arch 
without a fissure. Throughout the Koran the ignorance 
and sensuality of Mahomet, grotesquely mingle with his 
poetic fervor; the incongruous result cannot bear 
any comparison with the pure harmonious spirit of the 
Book it was intended to supersede, though in some pas- 
sages we recognize the true Semitic grandeur. The dis- 
cription of the last day is perhaps the best example. 

"In the name of God all merciful, a day will come 



3 6 4 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

when the sun will be shrouded and the stars will fall 
from heaven, when the camels about to foal will be 
neglected and the wild beasts will herd together through 
fear, when the waves of the ocean will boil, and the souls 
of the dead will be again united to the bodies, when the 
female infant, who has been buried alive, will demand, 
f For what crime was I sacrificed ? ' The eternal books 
will be laid open, the heavens shall pass away like a scroll 
and hell will burn fiercely and the joys of paradise will 
be made manifest. On that day shall every soul make 
manifest that which it hath performed. 

" Verily I swear to you by the stars which move swiftly 
and are lost in the brightness of the sun, by the darkness 
of night and the dawning of day, these are not the words 
of an evil spirit, but of an angel of dignity and power/ * 

Mahomet evidently borrowed his best ideas from the 
Jews and Christians with whom he had come in contact , 
the absurdities, inconsistencies, and ignorance are origi- 
nal. One chapter of the Alkoran was entitled, M The 
bright yellow Cow," another " The Ant," one is called 
"Elephant," another " Smoke." 

For three years the doctrines were quietly advocated ; 
at the end of that time Mahomet had but forty be- 
lievers : soon after a violent persecution broke out in 
his native city against the new sect, and his rich wife 
and influential uncle being dead, he was forced to fly to 
Yathreb, a city which thereafter was called Medina, the 
city of The Prophet. 

This flight, or Hegira, the era, from which all Ma- 
hommedan chronology dates, took place A.D. 622, when 
the prophet was fifty-two years of age. 

During these years Christian writers assert that por- 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 365 

tentous omens in heaven and earth, frightful apparitions, 
monstrous births, and battles in the sky, proclaimed the 
advent of Antichrist. 

Mahomet himself had in this interval seen visions and 
dreamed dreams, had ascended to the seventh heaven, re- 
ceived new revelations and had fallen into many trances ; 
and a vague apprehension seemed to agitate the civilized 
world that some tremendous crisis was approaching. 

A mosque was erected in Medina, where the prophet 
preached at first humane and gentle doctrines. The 
duties of charity, humility, and prayer, he not only taught, 
but practised. Ayesha, his favorite wife, once asked 
him, " Oh, prophet of God, do none enter Paradise but 
through God's mercy ? " " None, none," he replied. 
"But will you, oh prophet, enter but by God's compas- 
sion ? " "Neither shall I enter, except God cover me 
with his mercy." 

The courtesies of life and the kindest fraternal affec- 
tion he enjoined. His own household was conducted upon 
the simplest and most economical plan. His dress was 
plain, and he gave away all his property, reserving just 
sufficient for his immediate necessities. 

But now a change passed over his spirit. His guard- 
ian angel Kadijah had left him. He adopted the poly- 
gamous practice of his countrymen, and increased his 
harem to fifteen or twenty women, although he allowed 
his followers but four wives. Ambition and revenge took 
possession of his soul, and he proclaimed that his doctrines 
must be propagated by the sword. All ethical scruples 
were laid aside, he resorted to tricks and artifice. If any 
of his followers died leaving a beautiful widow, or if an 
attractive infidel woman was captured, a convenient 



366 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

visitant from heaven informed him that it was right to 
add these providential gifts to his harem. If it seemed 
desirable to attack a defenceless enemy during the sacred 
month, when all hostilities were to cease, if a treaty of 
peace proved troublesome, or if a rich booty could be pro- 
cured only by means of doubtful honor, a new revelation 
smoothed the difficult way. Vengeance, war, plunder, 
treachery, were justified under the pretext of religious 
zeal. His followers were the faithful, all others infidel 
dogs, fit only for extermination. Death in the holy war 
would be rewarded by the forgiveness of every sin and 
eternal pleasure in the arms of black-eyed houris. Fatal- 
ism strengthened the lawless arm of power. No man 
would die till his appointed hour. " It is fate," says the 
pious Mahommedan, and thanks " God whose name he 
exalted," for enabling him to carry out his decree in 
robbing a defenceless traveller, or cutting the throat of 
an enemy. A favorite maxim was " Hope is a slave, de- 
spair a freeman." These sentiments made the warriors 
reckless and unscrupulous. Kaled, the renowned gen- 
eral, asked a captive what was contained in a package 
secured in his belt. " It is poison," he replied, " to 
destroy my life if you prove unmerciful." " The mo- 
ment of death is fated," said Kaled, and himself swal- 
lowed the poison. A drenching perspiration and violent 
vomiting followed, and the life of the rash warrior was 
saved. 

Mahomet himself began, with rapidly increasing 
power and numbers, to head military expeditions which 
differ very little from piratical or brigand excursions. 
His success was unprecedented. His curses and prayers 
seem to have been alike potential, his prophesies were 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 367 

almost always fulfilled. His ranks were crowded 
by Arabs, always ready for war and plunder. No 
leader had ever lived like Mahomet, in the frenzy of 
battle, which his ringing voice w r ould stimulate to the 
most incredible furor, the combatants would behold celes- 
tial warriors and women mingling in the fight. His mili- 
tary success is unequalled in the annals of history. That 
of Alexander, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon, does not 
approach to it. The material of his army is catalogued 
in one word, enthusiasm, a sentiment which was exalted 
to ecstasy or inspiration. 

The magnetic power of Mahomet and his captains 
seems magical, and their eloquence irresistible. " Fight 
and fear not," he would shout to the eager soldiers, " Para- 
dise lies under the shadow of your swords." On his 
sword was inscribed, " Forward lies honor ! Fear brings 
disgrace ! Cowardice saves no man from his fate ! " 

Hear the fiery words of the warrior Kaled at the 
battle of Yermok, " Paradise is before you, the devil and 
hell behind, fight and you will secure the one, fly and you 
will fall into the other," incentives few men could re- 
sist. 

The war cry was Allah Achbar y God is mighty. One 
of their most renowned warriors, in a dreadful battle 
which lasted all night, uttered this portentous cry each 
time his ponderous Damascus blade took off the head 
of an enemy. It was counted four hundred times during 
that awful night. 

The fierce fanaticism blotted out all distinction of 
age, station, and sex. The women would stand by the 
battle inflaming the courage of the warriors with their 
chants. " Courage," they would cry, " sons of Abdaldar, 



368 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

close with the foe, strike and spare not, sharp be your 
swords and pitiless your hearts ! " Occasionally they 
would shriek out the names of the beloved slain. 

A sister of Derar, Cauleh by name, having oeen taken 
captive with other women, organized a defence with tent 
poles, and maintained it until she unhorsed the Greek 
leader left in charge, who was slain when her brother 
came to her rescue. Cauleh led a band of valiant women 
successfully through many a bloody conflict. 

Conversion, tribute, or destruction were the alterna- 
tives offered to a beleaguered city. The argument of the 
sword was unanswerable. When the Caliph Omar was 
once preaching, he remarked that there was no hope for 
a man whom God leads into error. A christian priest in 
the crowd exclaimed, " God leads no man into error." 
" Strike off that old man's head if he speaks again," said 
Omar. Of course he was discreetly silent. 

After the capture of the Jewish city of Kaibar, Ma- 
homet was poisoned by eating of roast lamb prepared for 
that purpose by a Jewish maiden. From its effects he 
never recovered, though he lived for four years after- 
ward. 

In the eleventh year of the Hegira, he had a severe 
accession of disease, and knowing he was about to die, 
was assisted to the Mosque, where he prayed and preach- 
ed, and bade an affectionate farewell to his afflicted peo- 
ple. " No prophet " said he " has lived forever. I re- 
turn to Him who sent me. My life has been for your 
good. So will my death be, remain united, expel all 
idolators, be kind to proselytes, practice the virtues I 
have taught you." 

Feeling that death was near, he freed his slaves, gave 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 3^9 

his money to the poor, and raising his eyes to heaven 
he murmured, u God be with me in the death struggle. 
Oh, Allah ! be it so, among the glorious associates in 
Paradise ! I come ! " 

So passed from earth on his sixty-third birth-day, in 
the eleventh year of the Hegira, the 632 A. D. Ma- 
homet, one of the most extraordinary inexplicable char- 
acters of history. A poor orphan of an Arab tribe, a 
man who could neither read nor write, driven by perse- 
cution from his native city, became, in the brief period of 
twenty years, a great political and military leader, the 
founder of a religion and a mighty empire. 

After the death of the Prophet, who left no son, one 
of his disciples, Abu Beker, succeeded to his place under 
the name of Caliph. He prosecuted the war against the 
Infidels, with vigor, but died after a brief reign on the 
day that the beautiful city of Damascus fell before his 
army. Damascus blades, Damask silk, and Damask 
roses still remind us of the richness and magnificence 
of that city. Omar, a grave, stern, inflexible man of 
primitive habits, was second Caliph. In the midst of 
his tremendous military campaigns, he frequently slept 
on the bare earth without tent or guard : when he went 
to receive the capitulation of the city of Jerusalem, he 
rode upon a sorrel camel, his equipage and commissariat 
consisted of a wallet filled with dates and parched grain, 
a leather water skin and a wooden platter swung upon 
the back of the animal. Yet during the reign of this 
plain man " thirty-six thousand towns, castles and strong- 
holds were taken, four thousand Christian churches de- 
stroyed, and fourteen hundred Mosques were built. He 
founded cities, established war marts and channels of 

24 



370 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

commerce, and cemented distant provinces into one em- 
pire/' 1 

He conquered Syria, Persia and Egypt, and it was 
his fanatic hand that applied the flames to the invaluable 
Alexandrian Library. Irreparable loss, lightly inflicted ! 
" If there is truth in it," said he, " it is already contained 
in the Koran ; if there is not, then, of course, it should 
be burned." Onward swept the fanatic iconoclasts across 
the north of. Africa, across the Mediterranean Sea, 
through the peninsula of Spain, aiming at the heart of 
Europe. India, Persia, Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, 
Egypt, Northern Africa and Spain, the richest and most 
powerful countries of the world, were helplessly trodden 
down beneath the feet of the Arab light cavalry. Deeds 
of daring and valor, more incredible than the wildest 
dreams of Oriental fiction, fill the reports of their battles. 
The civilized world lay humbled at their feet, but the All 
Powerful, had prepared a people more stern and persist- 
ent than the Arabs, and to them, He had entrusted the 
rod of power. Musa the able Saracen commander, whose 
sagacity displays itself in his famous proverb " A general 
should be doubly cautious after victory, and doubly brave 
after defeat," met his more than peer at Poitiers, France^ 
October 3d, 732, A. D. Charles, a Frankish Duke, ille- 
gitimate son of King Pepin, successfully checked the 
Mohammedan advance, and for his valor and good man- 
agement received the name of Martel, or the Hammer. 

This brave soldier was made king after his father's 
death, and was the grandfather of Charlemagne the 
founder of the Carlovingian dynasty. 

The great warrior, Musa, would still have persisted^ 

1 Irving. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 3 7 1 

but by the jealousy of his rivals, he was arrested at the 
head of his army, and ordered home, and Saracen ag- 
gression in Europe was ended forever. 

Dr. Draper, in Conflict of Religion and Science, 
says : " Christendom found its safeguard, not in super- 
natural help, but in the quarrels of rival potentates." 
But can Dr. Draper decide with certainty, that the quar- 
rel of rival potentates was not supernatural help ? 

With national progress the Moslems become the pa- 
trons of learning, the arts and sciences, and Christendom 
is indebted to them for mathematical, medical, astronomi- 
cal, agricultural and domestic improvements, which Chris- 
tian historians in their narrow bigotry, have attempted to 
conceal. They, with the Jews, kept alive the light of 
science and civilization through the dark ages, and while 
the rest of Europe relapsed into barbarism, Moham- 
medan rule in Spain and India, was characterized by 
progressive refinement. Their palaces and gardens in 
these countries were unsurpassed in elegance and luxur- 
ious appointments. Through the ventilated walls of their 
dwellings, ran pipes filled with warm or cold water, as 
the season required, while machinery produced a gentle 
current of fresh air, which was softly perfumed. They 
introduced the peach, apricot, grape, and many other 
fruits and vegetables into the west, for which we may 
thank them this day. Spain signed the death-warrant 
of her prosperity, when the edict was issued driving this 
enterprising people out of her territory.* 

The accumulated wealth of the ages was poured into 
the Mohammedan treasury. The accounts of the hoard- 
ed jewels and other riches of the conquered nations, 
particularly those of Persia and India, are incredible. A 



372 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

silken carpet of the effeminate Yezdigird, which was cut 
up and distributed among the generals of Omars army, 
was ornamented to represent a garden, with flowers of 
emeralds and rubies, and a fountain in the centre of 
pearls and diamonds. The architecture of the Moslem 
is airy and graceful. The most beautiful structure in the 
world, a perfect jewel of art, a dream of enchantment, is 
the Taj in India, a mausoleum erected to the memory of 
the loveliest and most pious Sultana of the east Here 
panels of snowy marble are perforated in Arabesque lace 
patterns, and are set with precious gems, contributed by 
all the princes of the East. A garden, like the Eden of 
old, surrounds this marble miracle. 

The simple Bedouin of the desert, who slept on the 
sand, whose wardrobe consisted of a single garment of 
linen or sheepskin, whose food was dates and parched 
grain, whose home was the saddle of his fleet steed, had 
become the most fastidious and luxurious aristocrat of 
the earth, and luxury and pride brought, as they always 
do, enervation and destruction. 

It is often said that history repeats itself ; in other 
words, the methods of divine providence are uniform. Sin 
and folly in nations, as in men, are always punished, for 
every individual life is but an epitome of history. The 
luxurious Babylonians yielded to the frugal soldiers of 
Cyrus, the effeminate Hindoos fell before the sturdy 
Greeks. When Greece lost her early virtues, the mar- 
tial Romans became her masters. The Israelites, disci- 
plined to moral and physical strength in the stony des- 
ert, exterminated the corrupt Canaanites, but becoming 
indolent and bigoted, forgetting God and rejecting his 
Christ, they perished as a nation at the hands of the Ro- 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 373 

mans. In their turn, the Romans, intoxicated by wealth 
and power, drifted into atheism, and wallowed in abom- 
ination and crime. Then the sword of the ferocious 
Northmen received its order, " Arise and devour much , 
flesh," and Pagan Rome went down in blood and flames. 
Christianity arose upon the ruins, but soon sunk into 
idolatry and fetichism. The spirituality, fraternal love, 
gentleness and purity which Christ had promulgated, 
were lost. Miracles and persecution were the means 
used to propagate the faith. Vitalized images, relics of 
the cross, bones of the dead disciples, the grave clothes 
of Jesus, the linen of the Virgin Mary's chemise, more 
horrible than all, a bottle of the milk of the mother of 
God! blasphemy inconceivable! these were among 
the objects of religious worship and miracle workers. 
Literature was abandoned, scientific pursuit was more 
odious than crime, the humanities and ethics of Chris- 
tianity were entirely ignored, while the church was torn 
and distracted by dissensions respecting unimportant 
dogmas. " Bishops were concerned in assassinations, 
poisonings, riotings, adulteries, treasons and civil war. 
Patriarchs excommunicated and anathematized each 
other in their rivalries for earthly power, bribing eunuchs 
with gold and royal women with episcopal love. Legions 
of monks carried terror into imperial armies, and riot 
into large cities, clamoring for theological dogmas, but 
raising no voice for the outraged rites * of mankind." ? y^-yVti 

In the Orient, the monotheism of Abraham and Ish- 
mael had lapsed into grossest paganism. Then arose 
Mahomet, with his banner inscribed " God is one. Down 
with the idols. The sword is the best persuader," and 

1 Dr. Draper. 



374 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

before the storm of truth and fanaticism, effeminate 
Greek, luxurious Persian, wrangling Christians and cor- 
rupt Jews were driven like chaff before the whirlwind ! 

The career of Mahomet has always been a puzzle to 
philosophers and historians. He was a handsome, grave, 
dignified, self -poised person, with a smile of remarkable 
sweetness ; his habits were abstemious, simple and fru- 
gal. Living in a polygamous and profligate community, 
he was, through the prime of his manhood, the continent 
husband of a woman fifteen years his senior, and while 
she lived his character and acts were consistent with his 
pretensions as a prophet. His intellectual qualities were 
of a high order, and although he could not read, he had 
wonderful resource, an excellent memory, quick appre- 
hension, great invention, tact and magnetism, his voice 
was remarkably musical ; but these qualities he possessed 
in common with thousands who make no mark in the 
world. He promulgated enough of God's truth to satisfy 
the conscience of men accustomed to corrupt and vicious 
living ; he made an artful appeal to the inherent desires 
and tastes of Arab character ; he strenuously enforced 
simplicity and temperance among his followers, and he 
possessed an eloquence which, in moments of excitement, 
blazed forth and inflamed every listener ; but even here 
we do not discover the mystery of his astonishing power 
He was in some respects as weak and infirm as ourselves : 
very human, often wicked, sometimes foolish, sometimes 
sick, and like the common herd he, too, must die. What 
then was the secret of his marvellous success and 
achievement ? 

The fact is unaccountable, unless we admit the idea 
that such as Mahomet are providential men; that the 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 375 

world requires their presence, and the Almighty Gover- 
nor sends His servants to do His work in His own way. 
He gives them the keys of the kingdoms. " They open 
and no man can shut, they shut and no man can open." 
He that can debase one and exalt another, " works in 
them to will and to do his own pleasure." 

With this explanation, the mission of Mahomet is no 
longer inexplicable, it has been fulfilled, its purpose is 
accomplished, and it is now passing away. 

Mohammedism has in its doctrines two fatal errors : 
the first is the idea that woman is merely the slave of 
man or the instrument of his pleasure. Women are held 
in so little esteem' among the Mohammedans that an 
Arab proverb says, " The threshold weeps when a daugh- 
ter is born." An eastern traveller recently overheard a 
sweet little girl describing something exceedingly small 
to her companion ; with unconscious pathos she said, " It 
was as little as the joy of my father on the day that I 
was born ! " 

Mahomet forbade female infanticide, and endeavored 
to control the lawlessness of sexual intercourse by per- 
mitting polygamy and concubinage, but the weak compro- 
mise was so inefficient, and productive of so much jealousy 
and dissension, that stern old Omar, unwilling to asperse 
the wisdom of the prophet, declared that " the greatest 
evil in the world is woman, and the worst of all is, that 
she is necessary." We can imagine the state of his own 
domestic affairs before such a remark would be wrung 
from his lips. Mahomet fell short of the wisdom of Jesus ; 
when the subject of polygamy or divorce was presented to 
him. " Moses," said he, "permitted these things on account 
of the hardness of your hearts, but in the beginning it was. 



376 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

not so." After a long series of experiments, men have 
discovered that there can be no improvement upon the 
marital arrangement God made for Adam in the garden 
of Eden. 

The second fatal defect of Mohammedism is an er- 
roneous idea of the deity, which resulted in the doctrine 
of fatalism. 

Mr. Palgrave, whose exceptional opportunity to study 
this religion constitutes him the best authority, says, that 
in " the sentence " ' La Ilah ilia Allah — There is no God 
but God/ is implied, not only the denial of polytheism, and 
an assertion of the unity of God, but also the idea that God 
is Himself personally the only force, act or motive in the 
universe, the one cause of all good and all evil, that men be- 
fore Him are simply His abject, powerless tools, which He 
crushes or benefits, dooms to truth or error, to happiness 
or misery, honor or shame because He wills it. When 
God/' so runs the tradition (I had better have said blas- 
.phemy), " resolved to create the human race, He took into 
His hands a mass of earth, from which all mankind were to 
be formed, and in which, after a manner they all pre- 
existed, and having divided the clod into two equal parts, 
He threw one-half into hell saying, i These to eternal fire 
and I care not/ and projecting the other half into heaven 
added, ' And these to paradise and I care not/ These two 
states are totally independent of love or hatred on the part 
of deity, or of good or evil conduct on the part of man, for 
the very actions which we call right or wrong, wicked or 
virtuous, are all of and from the all-regulating will of the 
Great Despot, who arbitrarily assigns and imputes them. 
In a word He burns one individual through all eternity, 
amid red hot chains and seas of molten fire, and seats 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE, , 377 

another in the plenary enjoyment of an everlasting brothel, 
amid forty celestial concubines, just for His own good 
pleasure and because He wills it." 

In this terrible doctrine were contained the germs of 
paralysis and early death. Man was divested of all re- 
sponsibility. Fatalism nerved him in times of danger to 
incredible feats of courage, but it rendered him equally 
apathetic in the hour of defeat. It seared his conscience 
when violating every moral law, and excused him when 
in the commission of crime. "Kismet" was unanswer- 
able. " It is fate that we triumph. It is fate that we 
are routed. It is fate that this man should die by my 
treachery and his gold be mine. I am without sin. 
God's will be done ! " 

The Moslems took the sword to force their religion, 
and nationally they perished by the sword. • They were 
better than the men of their times, but in their doc- 
trines there is no inherent vitality, no elasticity, 
no element of progression. The Paganism which pre- 
vailed universally, even in the nominally Christian 
churches, was overturned by the uncompromising dogma. 
" There is but one God," but that One was an unreason- 
ing tyrant or temporizing vacillator, meeting emergen- 
cies by expedients. Mohammedanism checked the fright- 
fully increasing evils of monasticism by admitting poly- 
gamy, but by degrading woman it lost its morality. By 
teaching that any act or policy was justifiable in the pro- 
pagation of the faith, it warped the entire moral nature of 
its believers, so that the deceit, treachery, and dishonesty 
of the Arab is proverbial. Submission to God, its fun- 
damental doctrine, is not the cheerful obedience of a 
confiding child, but a despairing assent to the inflexible 



37 8 ( FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

decree of an inexorable tyrant. The Koran of Mahomet 
dwindles to insignificance before the Gospel, the Cres- 
cent pales, and wanes in the sunlight glory of the Cross 
of Christ ! 



CHAPTER XVI. 
CHRISTIANITY. 

SUNRISE. 

" The people that sat in darkness saw a great light," " Arise and shine for thy 
light is come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee ! " 

U \\ 7HAT is Truth ?" said Pilate, and to-day, as 
VV through the rolling ages, we hear the echo 
"What is truth?" 

The canonical answer of the fathers no longer satis- 
fies the anxious soul, increasing light has disclosed weak 
spots and dangerous pitfalls in the religious platform, in- 
fidelity exaggerates their proportions, and the enquirer, 
unable to perceive beneath the decaying planks of ortho- 
doxy and church canon, the granite rock of Eternal 
Truth, cuts loose from the old moorings and plunges 
without rudder or compass into the shoreless, beaconless 
ocean of Atheism. 

Shuddering at such a possibility, we have endeavored 
from the standpoints of all the ages and nations, without 
fear and without prejudice, to discover religious truth, 
God's eternal law. 

We have now to examine another and final religious 
system, one which numbers among its believers a large 
proportion of the civilized people of the earth. 

The founder of Christianity has given a direct une- 
quivocal answer to Pilate's inquiry, " And Jesus said, I 
am the Way and the Truth." Can this assumption be sus- 
tained? 

379 



380 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

The study of this religion as an extensively received 
faith is a matter of profound interest, and the practical 
results of our estimate of it, involve for each of us per- 
sonally the most tremendous consequences ; let us then 
lay aside all church dogmas and creeds, and learn, from 
the original source, its character and right to the lofty 
claim of being an embodiment of divine truth. 

Unlike that of other great religious teachers, the life of 
Christ was brief. Moses lived one hundred and twenty 
years, Zoroaster and Confucius died at seventy-six, Bud- 
dha at eighty, but Jesus was only thirty-three at the time 
of his execution and his ministry had been but for three 
years. The magnitude of the work accomplished in that 
brief interval, and the permanence of the results are the 
greatest miracles of Christianity. 

His advent had been foretold by the seers of all ages, 
particularly the Hebrews, and he announced himself as 
the Messiah. His mission began with an immediate 
amelioration of the physical suffering around him, his 
teaching, with a call to repentance and a free offer of 
salvation to all who would accept his doctrines. He de- 
nounced the hypocrisy and formality of the Jews, abro- 
gated their ceremonial law, disparaged their undue rever- 
ence for sacred places and edifices and made the spirit 
and motive of the actions of men, the criteria of reli- 
gious condition. He taught that any outward act of 
piety was nothing, except as an indication of the inward 
spirit. His religion was a vitality like the germinating 
element in a seed ; spirituality the underlying principle, 
sorrow for sin, and faith in Christ, the first indications. 

By its influence, a new element would be infused into 
the moral nature of man, and a marvellous modification 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 381 

of character would result. Truth and piety, charity and 
self subjection pervade every doctrine and precept of the 
New Testament. " Blessed are the poor in spirit, Bles- 
sed are the meek, those who mourn for their sins, the 
pure in heart, the peace makers." " Love the Lord your 
God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself." 
" A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one 
another. ,, 

It was to be a religion of liberty no less than of love 
and self-subjection. " The truth," said its founder, " shall 
make you free ; " free from the burden of sacrificial rites, 
free from the bondage of superstition, free from the 
heavy yoke of sin, from fear of death. " This freedom does 
not authorize license, for in personal morality, self-re- 
straint is liberty, and self-indulgence is slavery." 1 The 
apostles of Christianity use this language, " The creature 
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God." "Brethren ye 
have been called into liberty : only use not liberty for an 
occasion of the flesh." " As free and not using your lib- 
erty for a cloak of maliciousness." " Where the spirit 
of the Lord is, there is liberty." Its constraint is upon 
the animal appetites and evil passions of men, and in 
consequence there is an augmentation of moral and men. 
tal power which imparts intellectual freedom, notwith- 
standing that certain retrograde philosophers, (who im- 
agine themselves advanced) use the terms religion and 
superstition, as synonymous. The apostle Paul distinctly 
says, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." 2 
The superstitions of the natural religions did ndeed 
creep into the Christian church with the Paganism of 

3 Fronde. 2 Thess. 5, 21. 



3^2 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

Rome, but they form no part of the teachings of Christ 
who reproves its spirit. When they told Him of the 
Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sac- 
rifices and those eighteen men upon whom the Tower in 
Siloam fell, " Think you," said he " that these men were 
sinners above all others, because they suffered these 
things ? I tell you Nay." * 

The religion of Christ is democratic in its tendency. 
Its founder alone is " High Priest and King forever." 
He organized no privileged classes, no ecclesiastical gov- 
ernment. Jesus said, " Ye know that the princes of the 
Gentiles, (or heathen) do exercise dominion over them, 
and they that are great, exercise authority upon thern, 
but it shall not be so among you. Whoso will be great 
among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will 
be chief among you, let him be your servant." " God is 
no respecter of persons ; " the lowly, the poor, women, 
little children, are upon the same level with the lordliest 
man, "for he looketh not upon the outward appearance," 
but upon the moral nature. All worldly distinctions are 
ignored. " The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he 
has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath 
sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance 
to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to 
set at liberty them that are bruised." 2 

" The advent of Christ brought good tidings of joy to a 
portion of the human race to which the world had hitherto 
given nothing but contempt and wrong — the slave, the 
pauper, the woman and the child." 8 Its benign influ- 
ence has been so marked in elevating the condition of 
women, that we should suppose an unchristian woman at 

1 Luke 13, 1-5. 2 Matt. 4, 18. 8 S. B. Gould 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 383 

this age of the world, would be an anomaly, a bye word 
and a reproach. 

Another peculiarity of the Christian religion is its 
unmistakable enunciation of the doctrines of the immor- 
tality of the soul, and the resurrection of the body. The 
future state of man, as presented in the natural religions* 
is gloomy and repulsive. Even in that of the semi-en- 
lightened Hebrews, it is vague and indefinite. But 
Christ permitted his disciples to see Moses and Elias re- 
turn to earth and converse familiarly with him. By a 
story he gives us a glimpse of Lazarus in heaven and 
Dives in hell. He said to his disciples just before his 
death, " In my father's house are many mansions ; I go 
to prepare a place for you." And to the penitent thief, 
expiring by his side, " To-day thou shalt be with me in 
Paradise.'' Finally he appeared to his disciples in his 
own body, which had been crucified and raised from the 
dead. 

The rites and ceremonies which he enjoined are few 
and exceedingly simple. Prayer, preaching, baptism and 
the celebration of the Lord's supper are commanded, and 
the marriage ceremony was sanctioned ; but he con- 
stantly reproved the formalism of the Jews, who tithed 
the very herbs of their garden from legal zeal, " but for- 
got justice, mercy, and the love of God." " I spake not 
to your fathers concerning burnt offerings and sacri- 
fices, etc." And yet our Saviour, knowing there would 
be men so constituted that they must have forms and 
rites, added, " These things ye should have done, and 
not have left the other undone." 

But more deeply concerning us than the theory of 
Christianity, is the practical question, what is the effect 



384 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

of this spiritual religion upon individual character ? does 
it make men better and happier ? 

The speculative Greeks were always much exercised 
with regard to the nature or essence of the soul, and one 
of their philosophers, Plotinus, in a moment of illumina- 
tion, believed he saw his own soul. It was considered a 
great miracle, but it is just such an one as every man ex- 
periences whose mind is illuminated by spiritual Chris- 
tianity. He sees his own soul ! and it is not an agreeable 
sight. He sees there selfishness, sensuality, hatred, re- 
venge, jealousy, envy, detraction. They are ugly, forbid- 
ding, malignant qualities. He recognizes them at once. 
He has often seen them before, in other people ! The 
thought of God's omnisciences troubles him, despite of un- 
belief ; conscience whispers of a judgment to come. He 
is sorrowful, repentant, and then, with joy, he remembers 
that Christ died for just such souls, and he accepts him 
for his Saviour. 

Now he is a Christian, by no means a perfected one. 
Christian grace in this hard, ungenial world is of slow 
growth, but the man is conscious of new aspirations, and 
new motives of action. He is aware of a gradual trans- 
formation of character ; he is more charitable, patient* 
forgiving and less selfish, envious, unrelenting, less anx- 
ious to remedy all the evils of the world himself, and 
more willing that God should do it in his own way, even 
if it does take a little longer. He comprehends, by slow 
degrees, perhaps, that money and power are not man's 
best possession ; that love, human love, and God's love, 
outweigh them even in this life ; so his grasp upon the 
world is gradually slackened, not wrenched off suddenly, 
as when a Godless man dies. A calm happiness which 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 385 

enjoys all the good things in his possession, takes the 
place of the tempestuous, undisciplined pleasures or griefs 
of his former life. His individuality is not lost, his char- 
acteristics are not destroyed ; they are only modified. If 
he was mirthful, humorous, he will remain the same, but 
will not be boisterous nor unfeeling in his wit. If he 
was gloomy and morose, religion will not make him a 
light-hearted, gay man, but it will lessen the clouds of ill- 
nature, and render him more cheerful and agreeable. If 
he loved money and business, he will not become im- 
provident and indolent, but his motives and aims in ac- 
cumulating a fortune will be elevated and better directed, 
and he will guard against unscrupulous avarice. What- 
ever his native temperament, he will carry always in his 
hand a silken cord, and through the tortuous labyrinth of 
mortal life it will conduct him safely, till, perhaps to his 
own surprise, he looks up some happy day to find that it 
has led him safely to the Paradise of God ! 

We are often mistaken in our idea of the effect of per- 
sonal Christianity. // does not transform ; it modifies 
the diameter. " The Apostle Peter was a rash, impetu- 
ous man after his conversion, as John was gentle and 
loving before his." l 

There are no doubt many self-deluded hypocrites in 
the Church, and their condition is extremely perilous. 
They attend to the prescribed duties, sing and pray with 
God's people, understand and believe all the doctrines, 
belong to charitable associations, and devoutly thank God 
that they are not as other men are. Yet they are ready 
to overreach in their bargains ; they envy their neigh- 
bors, their happiness or good fortune ; they hate men 

1 Max Miiller. 

25 



336 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

whom they think have injured them ; they slyly speak 
ill of them ; they are full of selfishness ; they are empty 
of charity. Now, if we find here a portrait that we recog- 
nize as our own, oh let not self-love persuade us that God 
will make any exception in our favor "when he shall 
make up his jewels.'' 

And there are also many unconscious Christians. 
They have never been admitted to the church, the doc- 
trines are not made clear to them, election, the perse- 
verance of the saints and other church dogmas are so ob- 
scure that they suppose themselves deficient in the spiritu- 
al discernment professing Christians speak of ; but they 
have a feeling of dependence upon a higher power, and sor- 
row when they offend the laws of God ; they realize that 
their salvation depends upon the mercy of Christ. Do 
they pray ? They hardly know themselves, they long for 
peace with God, and sometimes this feeling bursts forth 
in imperfect utterances. It has been said, 

" Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, 

Uttered or unexpressed, 
The motion of a hidden fire 

That trembles in the breast.' ' 

Yes, these persons pray, perhaps unconsciously. 
They strive to do their duty to their neighbor, sympa- 
thize in his grief and joy, they deal honestly, keep their 
promises, scrupulously speak the truth. These are the 
unconscious, unrecognized children of God, who should 
let nothing deter them from acknowledging Christ in the 
simple ceremonial he enjoined at the Last Supper. Sor- 
row for sin and faith in Himself are the only require- 
ments Christ ever made. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 387 

Modes and methods are as diverse as minds. In 
some, religious conviction is gradual as the dawn of 
morning, in others it is sudden as the electric flash that 
prostrated the persecuting Saul. In some temperaments 
religious light is never perceived save through a weeping 
nimbus, while in happier natures it is felt like the 
bright sunbeams, irradiating the whole life. Yet in 
both cases the true light shines ! No man should judge 
of another's religious status from his own stand-point. 

St. Cyprian has left a beautiful picture of the chris- 
tians of the third century. " In their dress, their food 
and manner of life, they follow the customs of the coun- 
try, and yet they are distinguished by a remarkable way 
of living. They take part in everything as citizens, and 
endure everything as strangers. Every country is their 
native land and in every country they are foreigners. 
They live in the flesh but not after the flesh, they dwell 
upon earth, but they live in heaven. They love all men, 
though all men persecute them, when they are cursed 
they bless, when they are killed they hail the day of death 
as their true birthday/' 

But it maybe objected that Christians (nominal) have 
often been among the most cruel and relentless of man- 
kind, and with the advancement of christian religion for 
their plea, have perpetrated the most shocking enormi- 
ties that have ever blackened the annals of humanity. 
The eminent historian Froude has clearly and forcibly 
expressed the causes of this phenomenon, this apparent 
inconsistency. He says " God gave Christianity to the 
world, the devil brought Theology. The Founder of 
Christianity when he sent forth the Apostles gave them 
a singular warning. They were to be the bearers of good 



388 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

news to mankind, and yet He said in mournful prophecy 
' He was not come to send peace on the earth, but a 
sword, The son would deliver up the father to death, the 
brother, his sister, the mother, her child/ The strongest 
ties of natural affection would wither in the fire of hate 
his words were about to kindle. This prophecy, which 
referred in the first instance to the struggle between the 
new religion and Judaic bigotry, has fulfilled itself con- 
tinuously in the history of the church. Whenever the 
doctrinal aspect of Christianity has been prominent above 
the practical, whenever the first duty of the believer had 
been to hold certain opinions on the functions and nature 
of his master, and the second, to obey his Master's com- 
mands, then always with a uniformity more remarkable 
than is obtained in any other historical phenomena, there 
have followed animosity, dissension and bloodshed. Chris- 
tianity as a principle of life has been the most powerful 
check upon the passions of mankind, as a speculative 
system of opinion it has converted them into monsters of 
cruelty." 

This gives the keynote to the frightful discord of re- 
ligious persecution, and discloses the monstrous charac- 
ter of bigotry (whether in the church or out of it), which 
is so antagonistic to the spirit of true Christianity. 

The test of this spirit in any society or individual, 
may be found in the 5th chapter of Galations, " For all 
the law is fulfilled in one word. Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself. Now the works of the flesh -are 
manifest, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, iasciviousness, 
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, 
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murder, drunkenness, 
revellings. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, 



FROM. DA WN TO SUNRISE. 389 

long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance." In St. John's Epistle we read, " He that 
loveth not his brother abideth in death. If any man say, 
I love God and hate his brother, he is a liar. ,, 
. Another important question arises, Can this be a 
heaven-sent religion, so simple and easily reduced to the 
principal of Love to God and man ? May it not have 
been the invention of Jesus, to be placed upon the same 
level with the morality of Confucius or Buddha which it 
so much resembles ? The popular answer to these ques- 
tions, is a reference to the miracles of Christ as his high 
credentials. The argument, drawn from the historical 
records of his disciples is inadequate, and liable to his- 
torical criticism. However satisfactory to a believer, 
sceptics will point to similar reputed events in the lives 
of Buddha Mahomet and the saints of the middle ages. 

An infidel writer, in an anonymous work denying the 
possibility of miracles and a revelation, says, " We gain in- 
finitely more than we lose in abandoning belief in the reality 
of Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain pure and unimpair- 
ed the treasure of Christian morality, we relinquish noth- 
ing but the debasing elements added to it by human 
superstition" Curious paradox ! ultimate morality, taught 
by a liar and impostor ; (for Christ claimed a divine origin, 
" I came out from God,") an inconsistency far more diffi- 
cult of reconciliation than any contained in the revelation 
theory. This writer adds, " Let no man, whose belief in 
the reality of a Divine Revelation is destroyed by such 
inquiry, complain that he has lost a precious possession 
and that nothing is left but a blank. Revelation not being 
a reality, what he has lost was illusion, that which is left 
is Truth. * * * * The limit of thought once attained, 



390 FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 



we may well be unmoved in the assurance, that all that 
we do know of the regulation of the universe being so 
perfect and wise, all that we do not know, must be equal- 
ly so. Here enters the true and noble Faith which is 
the child of reason. ,, 

This writer, who belongs to a school of scientific 
bigots, very numerous at the present time, relegates from 
the constitution of humanity, its soul — If there be no 
soul, if man is merely a vital machine acted upon by 
brain power, which power for convenience sake we de- 
nominate intellect, a force which will find another devel- 
opment when the material of the brain changes form 
after death, then we may adopt the melancholy philoso- 
phy of the writer just quoted, and sink in the despair 
that has always accompanied atheistic belief, but even 
then we cannot assent to the assertion that " all we know 
of the regulation of the universe, is perfect and wise 
far from it — the indiscriminating rage of the natural 
elements, sin, crime, vice, disease, misery, death, are not 
perfect and wise, we cannot - 4 be unmoved " in their con- 
templation, they are evil, horrible intolerable, we cannot 
" rest at the limit of thought," attained by this writer. 
But if there be a soul, of which conscience as well as 
intellect is a quality, we shall feel that sin and vice and 
crime, the great sources of evil, involve responsibility to 
a power more perfect than any human government. 
Faith born of reason alone, lacks vitality and will starve ; 
as its near relative, credulity, the offspring of supersti- 
tion, must perish of surfeit. The " true and noble 
Faith " may be defined assent or belief founded upon con- 
viction : it is the child of reason and conscience, and 
when its clear far-seeing eyes first open upon this mys- 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 39 l 

terious universe, it looks upward to find a God, who will 
right all wrong and conciliate the antinomies so ap- 
parent in the regulation of the world. 

John Stuart Mill, most candid of atheists, if indeed 
he was such, in his last work, published after his death, 
thus speaks of Christ and Christianity. " The most 
valuable part of the effect on the character which Chris- 
tianity has produced, by holding up in a divine person a 
standard of excellence as a model for imitation, is avail- 
able even to the absolute unbeliever and can never more 
be lost to humanity. For it is Christ, rather than God, 
whom Christianity has held up as the pattern of perfec- 
tion. It is the God incarnate, more than the God of the 
Jews, or of nature, who, being idealized, has taken so 
great and salutary hold on the modern mind. And what- 
ever else may be taken away from us by rational criti- 
cism, Christ is still left ; a unique figure, not more unlike 
all his precursors than all his followers, even those who 
had the direct benefit of his personal preaching. * * * 
Who among his disciples, or among their proselytes, was 
capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or of 
imagining the life and character revealed in the Gos- 
pel ? * * * 

About the life and sayings of Jesus there is a stamp 
of personal originality combined with profundity of in- 
sight, which, if we abandon the idle expectation of find- 
ing scientific; precision where something very different 
was aimed at, must place the Prophet of Nazareth, even 
in the estimation of those who have no belief in his 
inspiration, in the very first rank of the men of sublime 
genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre- 
eminent genius is combined with the qualities of proba- 



39 2 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



bly the greatest moral reformer and martyr to that mis- 
sion who ever existed upon earth, religion cannot be said 
to have made a bad choice in pitching on this man as the 
ideal representative and guide of humanity ; nor would 
it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better trans- 
lation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the 
concrete, than the endeavor so to live that Christ would 
approve our life. When to this we add that to the con- 
ception of the rational sceptic it remains a possibility 
that Christ actually was * ' * * a man charged with 
a special, express and unique commission from God to 
lead mankind to truth and virtue, we may well conclude 
that the influences of religion on the character, which 
will remain after rational criticism has done its utmost 
against the evidences of religion, are well worth preserv- 
ing, and that what they lack in direct strength as com- 
pared with those of a former belief, is more than com- 
pensated by the greater truth and rectitude of the mor- 
ality they sanction." 

Then when we ask, Is the Christian religion of divine 
origin ? let us remember that the life of its founder was 
not written by himself, but by his disciples, honest though 
fallible men, according to their own showing, they do not 
claim inspiration even — I accept their record as true, if 
another does not, let him pass the miracles for what they 
are historically worth, and in candor, question reason and 
conscience. Is this a religion of universal adaptation ? 
does it meet the moral and religious needs of every hu- 
man soul? Is it expansive, elastic, progressive, adjusta- 
ble to all ages, sexes, conditions ? Is the individual or 
community that adopts and lives by its principles, purer, 
freer, happier, more exalted ? This is the real test, and 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 393 



if we can answer these questions in the affirmative we 
may reasonably believe in the truth of its founder — no 
mere man could have contrived it, Christ was sent into 
the world by God. 

Notwithstanding the broad conclusiveness of this ar- 
gument there may be persons still puzzled by the phe- 
nomena of the miracles. 

Certainly some of the acts attributed to Jesus Christ 
are apparently direct violations of natural law, which we 
will allow is inflexible. I do not mean to assert that the 
Power, who made the law, cannot change or vary it at his 
will, but for the sake of a fair argument, I will admit, that 
this never does take place, that God " Moves on through 
all eternity, His undisturbed affairs." 

Certain naturalists having summed up the results of 
their own investigations and that of enquiring minds who 
have preceded them, tell us the reputed miracles of Christ 
are such violations, and consequently that the instanta- 
neous curing of disease, the restoration of cripples, the 
stilling of the tempest, walking on the water, feeding 
thousands with a handful of food, and. raising the dead to 
life, are absolute impossibilities. Must we then discredit 
these acts ? By no means, they are violations of natural 
law as we understand it> but it is possible that Christ was 
more thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of nature than 
his scientific critics themselves are ; who will take the 
responsibility of declaring that he was not ? 

Then before pronouncing upon the impossibility of 
the so-called miracles, let unbelieving materialists explain 
the wonders taking place every moment around us and 
within us. Let them tell us what heat, electricity, mag- 
netism and galvanism are. What is instinct ? What is 



394 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

strength ? What is digestion ? When food is placed in 
a properly formed elastic sack, subjected to the exact 
chemical properties of the gastric juices, and supplied 
with the requisite heat and motion, why is not digestion 
the result ? Because, they answer, there is no nervous 
force in these artificial conditions. 

What then is nervous force ? What is vitality ? What 
is death ? " Prof. Smith of Edinburgh, Sir T. Melear 
and Prof. Pearson, all eminent astronomers, while watch- 
ing the transit of one of Jupiter's moons across the disk of 
the planet, saw it disappear for twelve minutes, and then, 
to their utter amazement, it reappeared on the same side 
of the disk. It was visible for four minutes and suddenly 
vanished. 1 " What caused this apparent retrograde move- 
ment, as contrary to known law as the backward moti/e^^-H* 
of the dial of Ahaz, or the suspension of rotation at the 
command of Joshua ? When they answer these questions 
satisfactorily, and explain the phenomena taking place with 
every breath they draw, and which they have the amplest 
opportunity to investigate, then perhaps we can explain 
how Jesus of Nazareth fed five thousand with a small bas- 
ket of bread and fish, how he walked upon the water and 
quelled the tempest, and even restored the dead to life 
and health ! Our most learned men are children in the 
science of nature which is infinite. Its records are as 
full of exploded theories as of established facts. Moses 
understood these laws better than did the Egyptian ma- 
gicians or the experimenters of to-day. Christ under- 
stood them perfectly, and by his superior, we may say di- 
vine knowledge, he could in reality produce uncommon 

1 Proctor's astronomy. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 395 

effects, as easily as the electrician can simulate life in a 
dead body by galvanism. 

The results were unusual, unnatural if you please, 
but not supernatural, in the sense that they were viola- 
tions of God's law. They were applications of such law by 
methods impossible to our ignorance. 

" Miracles " are no part of Christianity, nor is a belief 
in them necessary to become a Christian. Our idea of 
miracles depends upon our idea of Nature, a name given 
to our limited experience, our knowledge of law. As our 
knowledge of nature advances, the miracle of one age be- 
comes the science of another. The mistake is, to sa# 
that the miracle is a violation of the laws of nature. 
Some higher and unknown law may hold the known law 
in suspense, as when a ball is thrown up into the air, the 
law of gravitation is not destroyed, but overcome for the 
moment by another law. The universe is full of law, and 
it may be that the ascending series extends where know- 
ledge of the law is not possible to our finite minds. Each 
event of fact is a miracle till seen from its own stand- 
point." * Man lives surrounded by mysteries, to the Deity 
nothing is miraculous. But it may be said, no such un. 
usual applications of natural law are seen at this age 
of the world. Our answer is, none are now required, the 
leading-strings of infancy are withdrawn, the world has 
attained a highly educated manhood — why should the 
present ruler of Egypt be informed in dreams of a com- 
ing famine when meteorologists can calculate for 
droughts and freshets, earthquakes, storms and gales of 
wind ? Reason and experience must now be our guide 
in the physical realm, but alas ! in the moral existence of 

i Rev. H. Stebbins. 



39 6 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

the race there is no such gratifying progress to be re- 
corded ; women to-day are foolish as Eve and and men are 
weak as Adam, still children who require spiritual mira- 
cles to preserve the life of the soul, and by that subtile in- 
fluence which is called prayer, such intervention may be 
obtained. The mistake which materialists make, is in ap- 
plying the laws of physics to psychology. Mr. Froude 
makes the nice distinction, in speaking of the fatal battle in 
which James 5 th of Scotland lost his kingdom, and, as a 
consequence, his life. " The folly of venturing such an 
expedition without leader or order, may account for the 
failure, but who will account for the folly." 

The rational summing up is, miracles (so called) were 
once performed by an unusual exercise of natural laws, they 
have now ceased, because no longer required for the wel- 
fare of man; they are still effected in the spiritual 
nature, because the soul still requires the intervention of 
God for its salvation. 

The doctrine of the Incarnation, or the actual em- 
bodiment of divine truth, in the person of Jesus, is the 
one assumption of Christianity, the most difficult to be- 
lieve, the most impossible to prove. It finds its best de- 
fence, not in historical evidence which is but corrobora- 
tive, nor in Church dogma, which is liable to be fal- 
lacious, but in the necessities of humanity. God, the 
Awful, the Absolute, the Concealed, exhibits his reality 
in his works as the Irresistible, the God of Power, the 
Terrible, Incomprehensible, Unapproachable One. St. 
Augustine, the learned Latin scholar and lovely Chris- 
tian, relates that " he was once walking on the sea-shore 
absorbed in the attempt to comprehend and define the 
idea of God. As he passed and repassed, his attention. 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 397 

was attracted to a beautiful little boy who was bringing 
water from the sea in a cockle shell and pouring it into a 
small hole in the sand. Surprised at the child's persis- 
tence, he inquired what he was doing. " I am trying to 
empty the sea into this hole," was the reply. " That is 
an utter impossibility," said Augustine. " No more im- 
possible," said the child, " than it is for you to get the 
idea of God inside of your skull ; " and, saying this, he 
disappeared. How shall man comprehend the Incompre- 
hensible ? He can have no relations with such a Being. 
" God out of Christ is a consuming fire." 

But man ever gropes for and cries out after God, "Oh 
that I could find him." The universal instincts of human 
nature are prophecies which are always fulfilled. The 
wants of our animal nature are a promise of their gratifi- 
cation, the restless desire to better our condition is a 
prophecy which finds its fulfilment in what we call 
progress. Alas ! that the unalterable nature of law 
should here also be proved in the perverse and depraved 
action of our desires, the lust of sensuality, the greed of 
avarice, the thirst for power and revenge. Our instinc- 
tive horror of annihilation is a prophecy of immor- 
tality, and the universality of the religious sentiment, 
a yearning of the soul for some means of approach 
to the Supreme Power, is a guarantee of its possibility. 
This universal sentiment has in all nations and ages re- 
solved itself into the expectation of reconcilement through 
an Incarnation. 

In almost all the natural religions we find the belief 
in "a Son of the Sun, who is above all the gods, except 
the Supreme Unity." This tendency to materialize 
Deity is apparent in the Old Testament. " The Triad " 



398 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

of the Gentiles are shadowed forth physically in the per- 
sons of the Trinity. The Father is typified as Fire, the 
Son as Light, the Spirit as Air, a rushing, mighty wind. 1 
Not the Hebrew seers, and Confucius, Zoroaster, Balaam 
and Virgil only, believed in the coming of a benefactor 
and saviour who should be more than man. In China he 
was expected and called Fo-hi, in Thibet Schaka, in India 
Chrisna, Osiris in Egypt, Taut in Phoenicia. Hermes or 
Hercules was the saviour in Greece, Odin in Scandi- 
navia. In Central America he was called Quetzalcoatl, 
and in South America Manco Capac. He is always rep- 
resented as the teacher of men bringing useful arts, and 
the true religion. In many of these myths, the son is 
destroyed by the evil powers, and it is predicted that he 
will reappear upon the earth after the decrees of the 
Father are fulfilled. 

In this universal expectancy we find the prophecy and 
possibility of an Incarnation. It furnishes an argument 
which seems indisputable, in the self-evident truth of the 
absolute necessity for, and the perfection of, the mission 
and office of the Son. All the antagonisms of law are 
conciliated in the idea of Christ. Philosophy and re- 
ligion, justice and mercy, law and love, reason and feel- 
ing, self-love and benevolence, God and the world, here 
meet, blend, harmonize and unify in what otherwise is 
an impossible reconciliation. Without this revelation, 
the human soul must grope as it has ever done in Pan- 
theism, Deism, Atheism, or belief that a blind despotic 
power, like the fate of the Mohammedans and destiny of 
the Greeks, controls the universe ; but that which " kings, 
and prophets waited for, the desire of all nations/' the 

i Mr. Cary, Orthodox. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 399 

enigma " which in other ages was not made known unto 
the sons of men,'* 1 is made plain in the person and mis- 
sion of the man Jesus Christ, " God being through him 
reconciled to the world.'' " I will utter," said Christ, 
" things which have been kept secret from the foundation 
of the world." 

The universal expectancy of, and the absolute neces- 
sity for, an Incarnation, authenticate its verity. "What 
must be, will be." 

And now one quest is finished ; we have sought 
among the ruins of past ages, as also in the methods of 
later times, to learn from the religious ideas of mankind 
what is immortal truth. While governments have been 
subverted, religious forms swept away and phases chang- 
ed, certain underlying ideas have survived the wreck or 
their deep buried germs have shot forth anew from the 
desolate Eden of lost faith. These indestructible ele- 
ments are eternal Truth and can be briefly summed up. 
They are, belief in a Supreme Intelligence or Deity who 
is the Creator and Governor of the Universe ; the pos- 
sibility that his will can be revealed to man ; conscious- 
ness of sin and estrangement from this Being ; the hope 
of pardon through sacrifice and a final reconcilement 
through the advent of a Son of God. These ideas are 
so common to all mankind in all ages that they may just- 
ly be called universal. 

Is the Jewish Christ "he that should come, or look 
we for another ?" Certainly in his life and doctrines we 
find embodied all those ideas which have survived the 
wreck of time, and over their stern features He has 

1 1 Col 1, 26. 



400 FROM -&AWN TO SUNRISE. 

thrown the soft mantle of all-embracing, everlasting 
love ! 

" It may be demonstrated," says Le Maistre, u that 
all ancient traditions are true, that all paganism is but a 
system of displaced verities." Baring Gould says, " Chris- 
tianity is the re-integration of all scattered religious con- 
victions." By Christianity, is meant the doctrines which 
Christ taught, not orthodox theology, which Matthew Ar- 
nold calls " an immense misunderstanding of the Bible," 
and which, resulting in bigotry, our Saviour refers to 
when he says, " If the light that is in thee be darkness, 
how great is that darkness " — a darkness which " over- 
took " the church " unawares," notwithstanding the warn- 
ing of its founder. Towards such theology we are some- 
times disposed to feel as did an eccentric person who 
prayed that " men might abandon Christianity and adopt 
the religion of Christ." 

Although in reviewing the religions of mankind, we 
are horror stricken in view of that monstrous substitute 
offered by the Evil One to satisfy the religious cravings 
of man, which modern science has so unexpectedly un- 
veiled, we have been comforted to perceive that the ori- 
ginal idea revealed to the primogenitors of our race, has 
never been entirely lost. " The word of God is not 
bound," it has not been confided to Jew and Christian 
only. Aided by the light of conscience, there have 
always been, certainly a few, and we may hope very 
many men who have earnestly sought for God, who 
lived conscientiously by the truth they possessed 
and are now in a perfect enjoyment of the light which 
shone but dimly for them in their mortal life. " And I 
saw a great multitude that no man could number of all 
nations and kindred and people and tongues stand before 



FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE 401 

the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes 
and with palms in their hands/ 

But among the masses, the purity of the original truth 
was soon corrupted, and a mistaken ideal created, which 
soon became debased, immoral and cruel. The Sabaism 
of the tribes of Cush and Turan, degenerated into the 
grossest worship of man's lower nature ; it cannot be 
compared with a religion which accounts the man blessed 
who M is pure in heart.' ' 

We saw a pure, dim, uncertain light in Confuciism, 
but there was no God, and if the enquiring soul turned 
from its every day morality, it shuddered at the shapeless 
objects which seemed to float in the outer darkness, and 
a monotonous despair often made life so unbearable, that 
death self-inflicted, was preferred. 

Christianity with as perfect a morality as that of the 
great Chinese philosopher, reveals a heavenly Father, a 
happy future life, and spirit world into which, although 
greatly desired, we may not go uncalled. 

The believer in the heroic religion of Zoroaster per- 
ceiving only the eternal conflict between good and evil, 
fought hopelessly on, sure only that death, implacable 
foe, would be his conqueror, and the fierce struggle be 
continued in after ages. 

But the Christian warrior with his heaven forged ar- 
mor, knows he will be victor, that death, the last enemy, 
will be vanquished, and that rest and a conqueror's crown 
await the issue of the struggle. 

In Brahmanism, we saw the mind of man strained to 

a point of speculation and spirituality impossible to be 

sustained, and a degeneration to the grossest idolatry 

and sensuality was the inevitable result. 

26 



402 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 



The spirituality of the Christian religion is simple 
and practical, so interwoven with the ordinary events and 
duties of life as also with its far-reaching speculations, that 
while the most grasping intellect can scarce explain it, 
" the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein." 

The atheism of Gotama, resulted in a glittering cere- 
monial, unworthy of the immortal mind ; denying God, 
it has deified a man, teaching of an impossible future. 
Nirvana, or Nothingness, it now depicts a material hell, 
more horrible in its details of torture, than that of the 
mediaeval church. The morality of Buddhism is beautiful 
and practical, but the motive for its practice is purely 
selfish. Virtue is enforced, not for its own sake, but to 
save the body countless dreadful transmigrations. 

How much more exalted the Christian motive, how 
speedy and satisfactory his reward ; while in all the 
mournful or joyous events of life, he perceives the guid- 
ing hand and beneficient spirit of the Father of all. 

In the anthropomorphism of Greece and Rome, we 
perceive the demoralizing influence of a belief in human 
gods : even in the most intellectual and refined nations, 
immorality and atheism, decadence and destruction must 
ensue, where the gods are more lawless and depraved 
than their worshippers : and yet the craving and neces- 
sity which has always been felt for an incarnation of 
Deity, is met and satisfied in the person Christ, spotless 
in character, a perfect example. 

Though in the religion of the Northmen we find such 
germs of truth, chastity, and self-repression, as rapidly 
transformed it to an heroic Christianity, the original ex- 
hibits a ferocity and savage cruelty which appals and 
repels us. It could never have become the universal faith. 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 403 

And in the portentous glare of the Mohammedan 
crescent, we discern, not the light which shall pervade 
and bless the whole world, but a lurid flame which gave 
the fierce fanatic Arab sufficient illumination to scourge 
into a sense of duty; wrangling, polytheistic christians, 
unbelieving, bigoted Jews and besotted Persians. It an- 
swered for the hour, but it was not for all time. 

This brief survey includes the principal religions of 
the world. Many of them have passed away and of those 
remaining, all have declined or degenerated The world 
for ages groaned under their gloomy despotism. It 
almost despaired of help from heaven, though the neces- 
sity for such an event had become an expectation andproph- 
ecy. Adam the first man, knew that the sin he had intro- 
duced into the world would be annulled by one of his 
posterity. Confucius said, " the true saint would arise in the 
west," and Zoroaster that " Sosioch would come and con- 
vert the world" Balaam, the renowned Chaldean seer, in 
prophetic vision saw " a Star arise out of Jacob and a 
sceptre out of Judah." The Jewish prophets foretold the 
coming of a Saviour with a wonderful accuracy of detail, 
and even the Latin poet Virgil has one poem which 
seems almost a paraphrase of Isaiah's prophecy, M at last," 
says he, " in God's time, the long expected Christ, the 
desire and hope of the world, the Incarnate Son of God 
appears." 

Such an august personage or such a tremendous 
mission, would of course be attended by all the pomp 
and majesty that earth and heaven could combine. 
Celestial guards would visibly attend him and the very 
earth be shaken by his tread. But God's ways are not 
like ours. Christ's kingdom was to be within the hearts 



4<H FROM DAWN TO SUNRISE. 

of men, in that spiritual world which will endure when 
all earthly pomp and grandeur, yea, the earth itself, shall 
vanish away. 

Our King holds his court in the grandest palace, in 
the humblest hut, amid the hurrying throngs of the 
city, in the quiet shadow of the sick-chamber, for in all 
places he knows his own, and " he abides with them." 
This is the religion of universal adoption, that satisfies 
every longing soul. From the first rude fisherman who 
left his net to follow Jesus, to the last enlightened man 
of this century who has accepted him as his Saviour, 
there has been given the same pardon for sin, the same 
strength to overcome it, and the same " peace which 
passeth understanding." 

These assertions are not poetic license or speculative 
theory, but every day fact, as all can testify ; and how 
greatly Christian virtue contributes to human happiness, 
let our own experience decide. When are we happiest 
and best satisfied nvith ourselves ? Is it when the fierce 
passions of envy, jealousy, hatred, anger and discontent, 
are poisoning all the springs of life and joy ? or when 
peace, love and the gentle unselfish sentiments enjoined 
and fostered by Christianity fill our hearts ? Is there one 
who doubts that Jesus of Nazereth is he that should come, 
that this is the heaven-sent religion, and that it will lead 
us safely through the troubled dream of present exist- 
ence ? Is there one who will from obstinacy, apathy, 
perverseness or any other infatuation, reject this priceless 
gift ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! 

Are we to have another revelation ? Certainly there 
is yet much evil and darkness in the world. Christianity 
does not hold that influence in the hearts of men its in- 



FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 405 

trinsic power and merit indicate that it should. What 
has given the check to Christianity ? demands the 
thoughtful enquirer. Perhaps, as in the ages past, God 
may yet send a prophet to answer this important ques- 
tion — to cement the bonds of christian union, to abrogate 
all religious sects and free from the errors of Paganism 
and Ritualism, that great and powerful branch of the 
Christian Church which claims catholicity, and which is 
not as has been often argued, the beast of the Apocalypse. 
We have at present light enough for our salvation. The 
Sun has risen indeed, but clouds obscure its brightness. 
The present time is described in the prophecy of Zach- 
ariah, " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the 
light shall not be clear, nor dark : But it shall be one day 
which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night, 
but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be 
light." 1 " Then shall the wolf also dwell with the lamb, 
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf 
and the young lion &nd the fatling together, and a little 
child shall lead them." 2 Another prophet may usher in 
the bright evening of Time. 

We have in this course of study watched the genesis 
of the world, we have seen this lovely orb, our earth, 
transformed from chaos to beauty, and made ready to re- 
ceive her coming Lord, the calcium light of philology has 
flashed into the recesses of antiquity, a ray which has 
illumined for our inspection the pre-historic past, we have 
marched through the ages to the solemn roll of history's 
martial strain, we have paused breathless beneath the 
vaulted temples in which man has vainly endeavored to 
enshrine the Deity, and have often refreshed our travel- 

1 1 Zach. 16, 6-7. 2 Isaiah 11, 6. 



406 FROM DA WN TO SUNRISE. 

worn soul in the sunlight of God's eternal truth streaming 
through rifts in the clouds of error, till the sunlight of 
the Gospel has beamed upon us, and shall it be said at 
the last, in vain, in vain ? 

We have seen that change is the universal law of na- 
ture, looking backward we saw the formation of this world 
from chaos, and looking forward we know that another 
great change must surely come. " When the heavens 
being on fire shall be dissolved, and all the elements shall 
melt with fervent heat, the earth and all the works that 
are within shall be burned up." Oh let us from this very 
hour cherish within our souls this heaven-sent faith, this 
germ of spiritual life, that it may modify and exalt our 
characters, raise us above the vicissitudes of time, and 
when the new heaven and earth shall appear, ensure our 
transformation into the regained Paradise, where all the 
mysteries of this present existence will be solved, where 
the leaves of the tree of life will heal the sins and sorrows 
of the nations, " where there is neither Greek nor Jew, 
barbarian or Scythian, male or female, 1 bond or free, but 
where Christ is all and in all I " 2 Amen ! 

Gal. 3, 284 * Col. 3, 11. 



the end. 



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